Arts of the Tea Ceremony

by

Rebecca Corbett

• LAST MODIFIED: 19 February 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920105-0187

Introduction

Chanoyu (literally “hot water for tea”), alternately known as Sadō/Chadō (“The Way of Tea”), often described as “tea ceremony” in English, is an art of social interaction based around the preparation and consumption of matcha (powdered green tea). Considered an art form in its own right, since its development in the sixteenth century, tea culture has provided an important context for the creation, consumption, and display of art forms such as calligraphy, painting, ceramics, lacquerware, and metalwork, to name but a few. Scholarship on chanoyu began in the early twentieth century and burgeoned in the postwar period. Much of the scholarship is dominated by authors associated with the Urasenke School of Tea which has become the largest school both within Japan and internationally in the postwar period and has its own publishing arm, Tankōsha. There is therefore a bias in existing scholarship toward this school, its style of practice and history, however, this has begun to be corrected in recent years. There has been a trend away from focusing on a linear narrative of the development of chanoyu with a focus on the three so–called “founders” of chanoyu: Murata Jukō (Shukō) (b. 1422/3–d. 1502); Takeno Joo (b. 1502–d. 1555); and Sen no Rikyū (b. 1522–d. 1591). More attention is given to developments after the formative period in which they lived, as well as more nuanced approaches to the contributions of these leading figures. The material culture of tea has become an increasingly fruitful area of study, with attention being given not only to the objects themselves but to patterns of consumption, the role of tea practitioners as producers of tea utensils and patrons of craftsman, and the function of tea utensils in gift exchange, identity construction, and for cultivating political capital. Another burgeoning area of study is the role of women in both historical and contemporary tea practice, and what the study of tea brings to women’s lives. This is correcting the male-centered narratives of earlier scholarship. Much tea scholarship is historical but there is a growing interest in bringing academic perspectives to bear on contemporary practice. Recent English-language scholarship has moved away from the term “tea ceremony” because it is not a translation of any existing Japanese term, nor does it capture the breadth of the practice. The term “tea culture” or even simply “tea” is now preferred as it is more encompassing of the various art forms included within chanoyu.

General Overviews

Kumakura 1980 is a landmark overview of tea history by the leading Japanese historian of tea culture; the author’s work can also be found in Varley and Kumakura 1989. A more recent and accessible overview of tea history can be found in Tanihata 2007. Another definitive study that has served as a source for subsequent scholarship is Nishiyama 1982, which focuses in particular on the development of the iemoto system that structures the schools of tea and how. While Okakura 1956 (originally published in 1906) is widely referenced and cited to this day as an overview of tea culture, it should not be read as such. English language overviews began with Varley and Elison 1981, a contribution that traced the development of tea culture up through the sixteenth century. This was followed by Varley and Kumakura 1989, which presented both translations of Japanese scholarship and new essays in English. Finally, Sen and Morris 1998 is an overview based on the perspective of the fifteenth generation head of the Urasenke School of Tea. We can think of these as the “standard narratives” of chanoyu tea culture. After these studies, which all present a linear narrative of tea history and privilege the role of the three so-called “founders,” scholarship has become much more critical. Pitelka 2003 represents the first English language study in this new wave. Readings wanting more critical and up-to-date scholarship should also consult the sources cited under Historical Studies.

• Kumakura Isao. Kindai Chadōshi no kenkyū. Tokyo: Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai, 1980.

  A pioneering overview by the leading Japanese scholar of tea history, this book covers the history of “The Way of Tea” (chadō) from the Tokugawa period to the early twentieth century. Kumakura has published over one hundred books since this first study, and has publications in English in Varley and Kumakura 1989 and the Urasenke-sponsored journal Chanoyu Quarterly.

• Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Iemoto no kenkyū. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1982.

  A landmark study on the “iemoto system” which emerged in the seventeenth century as a way to regulate the dissemination of an increasingly popular practice by issuing licenses to registered practitioners within schools headed by a patriarch (the iemoto), and standardize school-based practice with training procedures and a uniform curriculum. This work is regularly cited in the English-language scholarship on tea history.

• Okakura, Kakuzō. The Book of Tea. Reprint, Rutland, VT: Charles E Tuttle, 1956.

  The first English-language book on Japanese tea culture. It has been hugely influential to this day in how tea has been understood and presented both in Japan and globally. Often taken as a cogent explanation of what tea culture is, it is in fact best read as an example of late-19th- to early-20th-century efforts by Japanese intellectuals to demonstrate that Japan had “art” equivalent to Western fine art. Originally published in 1906. See also Murai 2012

• Pitelka, Morgan, ed. Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, and Practice. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

  This edited volume presents critical scholarship on tea history and contemporary practice by Western and Japanese scholars. Across the essays there is a focus on aesthetics, connoisseurship, and the production and collecting of tea utensils as part of what created the practice historically and continues to constitute the practice today.

• Sen, Sōshitsu XV, and V. Dixon Morris. The Japanese Way of Tea: From Its Origins in China to Sen Rikyū. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1998.

  English translation of work previously published in Japanese by the retired head of the Urasenke school. Provides a history of early tea culture starting with Lu Yu’s Chajing: The Classic of Tea, and the importation of tea to Japan. It presents a version of Japanese tea history which privileges the roles of the three so-called “founders.”

• Tanihata, Akio. Yoku Wakaru Sadō no Rekishi. Kyoto, Japan: Tankōsha, 2007.

  This “Easy to Understand Tea History” gives an overview of major historical developments from the importation of tea into Japan from China, to the development of rustic tea (wabi cha), and warrior tea (daimyō cha) in the Edo period. Major historical actors in the development of chanoyu such as Sen no Rikyū (b. 1522–d. 1591) and Furuta Oribe (b. 1544–d. 1615) are also highlighted. An accessible Japanese language introduction to tea history.

• Varley, Paul, and George Elison. “The Culture of Tea: From Its Origins to Sen no Rikyū.” In Warlords, Artists, and Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century. Edited by George Elison and Bardwell Smith, 212–222. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1981.

  Provides an overview of tea culture from the Heian period (794–1185) to the end of the sixteenth century. Argues that chanoyu developed in tandem with other arts and aesthetic practices, particularly those that involve social interaction, in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). Presents a concise and accessible version of the standard narrative of Japanese tea history, ending with the careers of the three “founders.”

• Varley, Paul, and Isao Kumakura, ed. Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1989.

  The first scholarly book on tea history in English, it brought together Japanese and Western scholars with original essays and translations of existing scholarship. Has a heavy emphasis on Sen no Rikyu as an iconoclastic individual genius who brought chanoyu to its apex. While this presentation is at odds with more recent scholarship, it still serves as a reference point for much scholarship on tea culture in English.