A Sociological Study of “Tea Ceremony”

Abstract

It was early in the “Heian” period that tea was first introduced into Japan from China. At that time this practice of drinking tea was limited to the higher classes, as tea was regarded as a precious drink.
In 894 the Japanese government stopped sending envoys to China in the Tung dynasty and this practice went out of fashion for a time with the rupture of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It however, came into vogue again after the “Kamakura” period so much so that a kind of game was often played among the lovers of tea for competing with one another in drinking some tea and then naming the place where it came from and prizes were presented to the winners. This Kind of game was usually followed by luxurious dinner parties but in the course of years, especially in the reign of Yoshimasa Ashikaga, people came to assume a critical attitude toward such a taste for luxury.
Then came Shuko Murata, called “Father of Tea”, who introduced a variety of tea, which under the special patronage of the then Shogun Yoshimasa Ashikaga, spread widely among the lower classes and is called “Gege no Cha”, which means “Tea of the Masses”.
Thus, favoured and loved both by the higher classes and by the common people, tea grew into the so-called “Tea Ceremony, ” an art peculiar to the feudal society in Japan.
From this point of view, it may be possible to give some sociological consideration and explanation about “Tea-ceremony, ” which has been placed for so many years under the special influences of our feudal society.