Different tastes of the history of tea at the Museum of Applied Arts and Design  

Exhibition opening at 5 pm on Friday, 17 October, 2025

For those who feel like caught in the whirlwinds of daily errands, the National Museum of Art (LNMA) provides an escape opportunity from these cares, inviting to discover peace in a cup of tea. October 17, at 5 p.m., the Museum of Applied Arts and Design opens an exhibition that offers to reflect on tea beyond its function as a beverage and to appreciate its role as a cultural phenomenon fussing tradition, ritual and aesthetics.    

 

“People we invite for a cup of tea are usually our actual or prospective friends, we do not drink tea with foes. Tea is not only a beverage, but a staple of many cultures, with deep historical and ritual traditions, diverse ways of tea making in different countries worldwide. That is what our exhibition Peace in a Cup of Tea. The Culture of Tea Consumption is about,” says Džiuljeta Žiugždienė, director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the LNMA.  

 

 

Rereading the history of tea culture in Lithuania 

 

“These days it sounds natural to ask ‘Would you like tea or coffee?’, but Lithuania had to walk a long way to reach this point of balance. In the past, tea was a rarity, nearly a luxury, giving in to the profuse coffee drinking culture. We have experienced this first hand when putting the exhibition together – it has taken a lot of diligence to trace the route tea drinking took to arrive in our country. Yet it was exactly this scarcity that led to an intriguing story of tea slowly making its way to our tables – from the mansions of the nobility to teahouses in small towns, and the interwar saloons, with their steaming tea cups and conversations over them about culture and life,” Dr Marius Daraškevičius, curator of the exhibition, gives a glimpse of the story of tea in this event.  

 

Tea drinking rituals integrate the experience, histories and worldviews of different cultures. On its arrival from the Far East in Europe, including Lithuania, tea ushered in also a new cultural taste, bringing along also the finesses of table culture with its luxurious tableware, polished manners and rituals of socializing.  

 

Gražina Gurnevičiūtė, curator of the exhibition, invites to discern aspects of tea culture in the works of art: “The exhibition makes the history of tea culture manifest through diverse forms of art. Visitors can explore shiny silverware from the celebrated world’s workshops, to marvel at the subtle ceramic pieces, translucent colours of bone china and exquisite textiles – these artefacts reflect both, the manufacturing traditions and aesthetic ideals. The paintings, engravings and archival photography reflect the practices of tea drinking and teahouses that operated back in day, both in visual terms and as records of cultural/social rituals connected with tea consumption.”    

 

Visitors of the exhibition will be able to explore the little-known history of tea drinking culture in Lithuania – from the first tea leaves steeped in hot water to contemporary rituals. The display spans different traditions and tastes from the habits in the mansions of nobility to 20th-century townfolk’s “afternoon teas”, and the echoes of subtle Japanese ceremonies in our culture. Thereby tea is conceived as an art of living that helps to achieve an equilibrium with one’s self, with the others and nature.   

 

 

Presentation from Japan – hinting at the story of tea’s arrival   

 

At the opening event, visitors will have an opportunity to marvel at the finely crafted Japanese confectionaries by Kazuyuki Miura. One of the leading masters of Japanese wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionary) with over 30 years of experience and a dedication to the fostering and proliferation of Japanese confectionary will demonstrate his technique of wagashi. Kazuyuki Miura’s exquisite artefacts reflect his deep sensibility of the seasons and his elaborate craft. Having introduced his skills in Italy and the USA, Kazuyuki Miura arrives in Lithuania for the first time to present his fine wagashi inspired by the seasons of the year to the exhibition visitors.   

 

Shortly following the opening night, Wednesday, 22 October, at 4 pm and 7 pm, the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the LNMA will host a performance by Saruhachiza, Bun’ya-style puppet theatre troupe from Sado Island.  They will show Taema, a classical play of Nō theatre. Nō is the oldest surviving Japanese theatre branch that includes acting, music, dance, and the art of masks. Nō performances frequently depict spiritual transformations and supernatural phenomena. The puppets of Bun’ya-style puppet theatre are manipulated by a single puppeteer, thus retaining an intimate bond between a performer and their character. The tradition, which previously fell into oblivion on Sado Island, has now been revived by the founder of the troupe Nishihashi Hachirobē, who will present this art to the viewers in Vilnius.  

 

The performances are open to all museum visitors.  

 

The exhibition will run through 30 March 2026.  

  

 

Project Manager Džiuljeta Žiugždienė 

Curators Marius Daraškevičius, Gražina Gurnevičiūtė 

Coordinator Živilė Intaitė 

Architect Tomas Valentinaitis 

Designers Ieva Bastytė, Lina Bastienė 

Coordinating architects Eglė Jagminė, Mažvydas Truklickas 

Lighting designer Mantas Markevičius 

 

Partners: Embassy of Japan in Lithuania, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, „Tos arbatos“, „Tea Gong“ 

 

Special thanks to: Haruka Seto, Aldona Snitkuvienė, Tadas Šaulys, Eglė Tarvainytė, Jūratė Kaučikaitė, Milda Šiaulytienė, Dalia Bernotaitė-Beliauskienė, Monika Gedrimaitė, Dainius Labeckis, Jūratė Meilūnienė, Giedrė Uzielienė, Gediminas Mikelaitis, Vadim Šamkov, Andrius Melys, Aistė Bimbirytė, Tadas Blėdis, Vytautas Narbutas 

 

Project by the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the LNMA  

 

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3A Arsenalo st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 212 1813;
+370 5 261 25 48; +370 5 262 80 80.
tddm@lndm.lt

See also

Exhibition

Peace in a Cup of Tea