Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines the transnational characteristics of the tea ceremony and how it was significant, for both men and women, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century modernisation of Japanese society.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu) is considered a crucial element of Japan's national cultural tradition, both in Japan and abroad. It is invariably included in Japanese displays at international exhibits, such as the 2005 Aichi Universal Exposition and the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition. Chanoyu is also one of the features that appeal to foreigners in the Japanese government's Cool Japan Project, which describes the tea ceremony as illustrative of Japanese lifestyle and food culture. Prominent private organisations operate schools to teach it - especially to women - in contemporary Japan.

Many modern discourses describe chanoyu as a female accomplishment. Earlier scholarship on the history of the Japanese tea ceremony in the modern period states that, while chanoyu was feminised in the 1920s, this feminisation originated in the Meiji period when chanoyu was incorporated as a part of the modern education for women. This presentation, however, challenges that narrative. Through a close reading of newspaper articles, magazines and visual materials, it examines how chanoyu became a respectable cultural practice for both males and females in the late Meiji period and discusses its transnational characteristics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century modernisation of Japanese society.