Paper short abstract:

This paper examines temporal and methodological divides that have allowed for an historical narrative to develop which ignores women’s participation in chanoyu prior to the Meiji period.

Paper long abstract:

Despite the fact that women make up the majority of tea practitioners in contemporary Japan, the history of women’s participation is largely ignored in histories of tea culture. When it is discussed, women’s participation is said to have begun in the Meiji period. Yet, my research has shown that there is significant evidence for women’s participation in the Edo period. In this paper, I will consider the historiographical reasons why this perceived Edo/Meiji divide has been so persistent and pervasive. What circumstances have allowed for women to be written out of the pre-Meiji history of this important Japanese cultural practice? Why does this matter? I argue that one answer is the divide between academic and popular history, and this matters because of how contemporary women tea practitioners view their place in the practice. The types of sources historians of tea culture have relied on is another reason women have been obscured view, pointing to a methodological divide. Finally, the divide between the history of Japanese tea culture and other subdisciplines, such as women’s history, must be considered in this analysis.