Welcome

This gallery aims to showcase woodblock prints that highlight Japanese tea culture, broadly defined. Last November, I did independent research in Kyoto and Tokyo reviewing modern conceptions of the historical origins of tea in Japan. 4 weeks of interviews, surveys, research, and participant observation with over 20 individuals, seemed to indicate that many people, especially youth, are unaware of the historical connection between Zen and the Japanese Tea Tradition, despite thorough documentation in literary sources. It is important to note there are significant distinctions between the drinking of matcha in a formal tea ceremony and drinking tea such as sencha as part of daily routines (e.g. from Family Mart on the way home from work). However, this gallery takes a broad lens of analysis, including pieces ranging from tea in pleasure houses to more traditionalist depictions reminiscent of a formal tea ceremony.

With this in mind, the virtual gallery builds off literary research to inform a visual presentation, all the while seeking to provoke thought on the following questions:

• What does tea and tea ceremony look like in woodblock prints?

• What purposes can tea serve in the scenes depicted in prints?

• Is tea more often a centerpiece of prints or is it primarily a background object?

• Are there overlaps in the presentation of tea and Buddhism in printed depictions?

Rebecca Corbett’s Cultivating Femininity: Women and Tea Culture in Edo and Meiji Japan was one source of interest while curating this gallery. In the book Corbett explains that initially, tea instructions continued to be produced in manuscript form despite the rise of woodblock prints as a way to safeguard the instructions of a specific school or lineage (29). She expands upon this, stating that “as tea gained popularity among commoners seeking to acquire cultural capital, the demand for information increased” which led to the publication of woodblock printed books on tea (35). This point was especially interesting, and I had hoped to be able to find some digital copies of similar books to include in the virtual gallery. However I was unsuccessful in this pursuit in part due to many of these books being held in unspecified private collections. I also identified key sources such as D.T. Suzuki’s Zen and Japanese Culture and Okakura Kakuzo’s The Book of Tea. Insightful quotes from these works are interspersed with images in the gallery to provide a further degree of food for thought.