Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony

Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony PDF Author: Kaeko Chiba
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136939229
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the complex relationship between class and gender dynamics among tea ceremony (chadō) practitioners in Japan. Focusing on practitioners in a provincial city, Akita, the book surveys the rigid, hierarchical chadō system at grass roots level. Making critical use of Bourdieu’s idea of cultural capital, it explores the various meanings of chadō for Akita women and argues that chadō has a cultural, economic, social and symbolic value and is used as a tool to improve gender and class equality. Chadō practitioners focus on tea procedure and related aspects of chadō such as architecture, flower arranging, gardening and pottery. Initially, only men were admitted to chadō; women were admitted in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and now represent the majority of practitioners. The author - a chadō practitioner and descendant of chadō teachers - provides a thorough, honest account of Akita women based on extensive participant observation and interviews. Where most literature on Japan focuses on metropolitan centres such as Kitakyushu and Tokyo, this book is original in both its subject and scope. Also, as economic differences between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas have become more pronounced, it is timely to explore the specific class and gender issues affecting non-metropolitan women. This book contributes not only to the ethnographic literature on chadō and non-metropolitan women in Japan, but also to the debates on research methodology and the theoretical discussion of class.

Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony

Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony PDF Author: Kaeko Chiba
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136939229
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the complex relationship between class and gender dynamics among tea ceremony (chadō) practitioners in Japan. Focusing on practitioners in a provincial city, Akita, the book surveys the rigid, hierarchical chadō system at grass roots level. Making critical use of Bourdieu’s idea of cultural capital, it explores the various meanings of chadō for Akita women and argues that chadō has a cultural, economic, social and symbolic value and is used as a tool to improve gender and class equality. Chadō practitioners focus on tea procedure and related aspects of chadō such as architecture, flower arranging, gardening and pottery. Initially, only men were admitted to chadō; women were admitted in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and now represent the majority of practitioners. The author - a chadō practitioner and descendant of chadō teachers - provides a thorough, honest account of Akita women based on extensive participant observation and interviews. Where most literature on Japan focuses on metropolitan centres such as Kitakyushu and Tokyo, this book is original in both its subject and scope. Also, as economic differences between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas have become more pronounced, it is timely to explore the specific class and gender issues affecting non-metropolitan women. This book contributes not only to the ethnographic literature on chadō and non-metropolitan women in Japan, but also to the debates on research methodology and the theoretical discussion of class.

The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan

The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan PDF Author: Etsuko Kato
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134372361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
The subject of the tea ceremony is well researched both in and outside of Japan, but the women who practice it are hardly ever discussed. The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan rectifies this by discussing the meaning of the Japanese tea ceremony for women practitioners in Japan from World War II to the present day. It examines how lay tea ceremony practitioners have been transforming this cultural activity while being, in turn, transformed by it.

Cultivating Femininity

Cultivating Femininity PDF Author: Rebecca Corbett
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 082487840X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book

Book Description
The overwhelming majority of tea practitioners in contemporary Japan are women, but there has been little discussion on their historical role in tea culture (chanoyu). In Cultivating Femininity, Rebecca Corbett writes women back into this history and shows how tea practice for women was understood, articulated, and promoted in the Edo (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. Viewing chanoyu from the lens of feminist and gender theory, she sheds new light on tea’s undeniable influence on the formation of modern understandings of femininity in Japan. Corbett overturns the iemoto tea school’s carefully constructed orthodox narrative by employing underused primary sources and closely examining existing tea histories. She incorporates Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of social and cultural capital and Norbert Elias’s “civilizing process” to explore the economic and social incentives for women taking part in chanoyu. Although the iemoto system sought to increase its control over every aspect of tea, including book production, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century popular texts aimed specifically at women evidence the spread of tea culture beyond parameters set by the schools. The expansion of chanoyu to new social groups cascaded from commoner men to elite then commoner women. Shifting the focus away from male tea masters complicates the history of tea in Japan and shows how women of different social backgrounds worked within and without traditionally accepted paradigms of tea practice. The direct socioeconomic impact of the spread of tea is ultimately revealed in subsequent advances in women’s labor opportunities and an increase in female social mobility. Through their participation in chanoyu, commoner women were able to blur and lessen the status gap between themselves and women of aristocratic and samurai status. Cultivating Femininity offers a new perspective on the prevalence of tea practice among women in modern Japan. It presents a fresh, much-needed approach, one that will be appreciated by students and scholars of Japanese history, gender, and culture, as well as by tea practitioners. An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.

The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan

The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan PDF Author: Etsuko Kato
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description


The Japanese Tea Ceremony – An Introduction

The Japanese Tea Ceremony – An Introduction PDF Author: Kaeko Chiba
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000781747
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to chado, the Japanese tea ceremony. Unlike other books on the subject, which focus on practice or historical background or specific issues, this book considers the subject from multiple perspectives. It discusses Japanese aesthetics and philosophy, outlines how the tea ceremony has developed, emphasizing its strong links to Zen Buddhism and the impact of other religion influences, and examines how chado reflects traditional gender and social status roles in Japan. It goes on to set out fully the practice of chado, exploring dress, utensils, location – the garden and the tea house – and the tea itself and accompanying sweets. Throughout, the book is illustrated both with images and with examples of practice. The book will be of interest to a wide range of people interested in chado – university professors and students, tourists and people interested in traditional Japanese arts.

The Book of Tea

The Book of Tea PDF Author: Kakuzo Okakura
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
ISBN: 3849621952
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 70

Get Book

Book Description
This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of more than 10.000 words about the history and basics of Buddhism, written by Thomas William Rhys Davids The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo (1906), is a long essay linking the role of tea (Teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life. Addressed to a western audience, it was originally written in English and is one of the great English Tea classics. Okakura had been taught at a young age to speak English and was proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western mind. In his book, he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of tea and Japanese life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzō argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture, and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyū and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. (from wikipedia.com)

Americans Studying the Traditional Japanese Art of the Tea Ceremony

Americans Studying the Traditional Japanese Art of the Tea Ceremony PDF Author: Barbara Lynne Rowland Mori
Publisher: Mellen University Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book

Book Description
Recent interests in learning from Japanese business practice and other aspects of social life are being viewed in a global context. The Urasenke school of chado (the Japanese tea ceremony) has been exporting its practice since the early 1950s. This study provides an opportunity to study the ability of a Japanese art to teach its practice and social structure to non-Japanese. This work contributes to our understanding of Japanese culture and its adaptability to outsiders, and the process by which non-Japanese learn to behave as Japanese in the setting of the tea room through the learning of cultural symbols and ritual behavior.

Making Tea, Making Japan

Making Tea, Making Japan PDF Author: Kristin Surak
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804784795
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book

Book Description
The tea ceremony persists as one of the most evocative symbols of Japan. Originally a pastime of elite warriors in premodern society, it was later recast as an emblem of the modern Japanese state, only to be transformed again into its current incarnation, largely the hobby of middle-class housewives. How does the cultural practice of a few come to represent a nation as a whole? Although few non-Japanese scholars have peered behind the walls of a tea room, sociologist Kristin Surak came to know the inner workings of the tea world over the course of ten years of tea training. Here she offers the first comprehensive analysis of the practice that includes new material on its historical changes, a detailed excavation of its institutional organization, and a careful examination of what she terms "nation-work"—the labor that connects the national meanings of a cultural practice and the actual experience and enactment of it. She concludes by placing tea ceremony in comparative perspective, drawing on other expressions of nation-work, such as gymnastics and music, in Europe and Asia. Taking readers on a rare journey into the elusive world of tea ceremony, Surak offers an insightful account of the fundamental processes of modernity—the work of making nations.

Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan

Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan PDF Author: Taka Oshikiri
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350014001
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book

Book Description
By examining chanoyu - the custom of consuming matcha tea - in the Meiji period, Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan investigates the interactions between intellectual and cultural legacies of the Tokugawa period and the incoming influences of Western ideas, material cultures and institutions. It explores the construction of Japan's modern cultural identity, highlighting the development of new social classes, and the transformation of cultural practices and production-consumption networks of the modern era. Taka Oshikri uses a wealth of Japanese source material - including diaries, newspaper, journal articles, maps, exhibition catalogues and official records – to explore the intricate relationships between the practice and practitioners of different social groups such as the old aristocracy, the emerging industrial elite, the local elite and government officials. She argues that the fabrication of a cultural identity during modernisation was influenced by various interest groups, such as the private commercial sector and foreign ambassadors. Although much is written on the practice of chanoyu in the pre-Tokugawa period and present-day Japan, there are few historical studies focusing on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan thus makes a significant contribution to its field, and will be of great value to students and scholars of modern Japanese social and cultural history.

Stranger in the Shogun's City

Stranger in the Shogun's City PDF Author: Amy Stanley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501188542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions. “A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy” (The Wall Street Journal), Stranger in the Shogun’s City is “a vivid, polyphonic portrait of life in 19th-century Japan [that] evokes the Shogun era with panache and insight” (National Review of Books).