Tea Culture of Japan, by Sadako Ohki, with a contribution by Takeshi Watanabe, is a catalog of an exhibition of Japanese tea objects presented at the Yale University Art Gallery from January through April of 2009 titled, Tea Culture of Japan: Chanoyu Past and Present. This catalog contains two essays, one each by Okhi and Watanabe, about the history and significance of tea ceremony in Japan, and increasingly, among connoisseurs of tea around the word. Both authors take the opportunity to contextualize the objects presented in the exhibition within their historical periods, noting the changing aesthetics, tastes, and ideologies underpinning the evolution of the practice between poles of simplicity and opulence.
The exhibition objects, beautifully rendered in color photographs throughout the essays, and listed complete with photos and information at the back of the book, provide a tool for the authors to explore their interest in the international history of tea. Rejecting the notion that tea ceremony is uniquely or exclusively Japanese, and therefore, the commonly held idea that Japanese culture is insular and untouched by outside influences, the authors examine the objects as evidence of the transnational culture of tea itself, originating in China, traveling through East Asia, and adapted to suit each new cultural context and historical period where it is adopted.
The natural focus of an exhibition catalog on objects of material culture is a particular asset in the exposition of their argument for the recognition of tea culture as an art form influenced by transnational movements of culture, particularly through the transnational movement of objects. Importantly, the objects shown are not all produced in Japan. Objects from China, Korea, Vietnam, and even Holland figure prominently in the exhibition and its catalog, illustrating not only the influence of international styles upon the development of Japanese aesthetics and craft, but also the use of foreign objects in Japanese tea ceremony from a very early date.
This work is not written within the context of Japanese folkloristic study of craft or material culture. Indeed, there is no mention of prominent scholars or discourses in that field, such as Yanagi Soetsu and mingei, his discourse on craft objects. Indeed, though tea ceremony is celebrated as a vibrant tradition, particularly within the context of increasingly international audiences and practitioners, this book does not frame such traditional practice within the context of folkloristics, but rather frames the appreciation of tea ceremony and its practice in terms of historical continuity, Zen philosophy, and aesthetic taste cultivated in the context of these two ideological regimes. The authors do not close down the interpretation of contemporary tea ceremony to specific practices involving specific objects, histories, or philosophies. Rather, they recognize and encourage the adaptation of tea ceremony practice to new situations and contexts, exemplified by their inclusion of participatory tea ceremonies as public programs during the exhibit. However, such practice is still conceived as a matter of cultivated taste, rather than folk activity.
In the context of its publication for an art museum exhibition, this neglect of folkloristics as a significant contribution to the scholarship of this exhibition and publication is regrettable but understandable. Indeed, the authors characterize tea ceremony as an activity that necessarily involves the cultivation of philosophical and aesthetic tastes outside the ordinary and the everyday, even when those objects used or made for the activity take on self-conscious references to the simple, the accidental, or the opulent.
Tea ceremony, either in its earlier history as self-conscious display of opulence, international consumption, and taste, or in its later ideology of self-conscious simplicity, equality, and unique Japanese character, is always reflexive and reflective. Tea ceremony becomes an opportunity for practitioners to self-consciously evaluate and reflect upon social, cultural, and philosophic realities through the use and contemplation of particular objects in highly stylized and formal interactive contexts. Thus, practitioners and users of such objects engage in highly reflexive activities, making the rhetoric of taste, aesthetics, and art history a slightly more obvious choice for the scholarly basis of this volume.
The folklorist, however, will still find this catalog a rich source for the study of Japanese material culture, as the authors do focus on issues of interest to folklore scholars, especially the aesthetic contributions of individual artisans in their interpretations of certain genres of object. The discussion of three separate tea scoops, and the relationship of their forms to the aesthetic philosophies of their makers, is particularly adept and insightful. While the neglect of folkloristics in the work has been noted and a possible excuse offered, the folklorist should ask what folkloristics could contribute to this fruitful exploration of the material culture of tea ceremony in future studies, particularly how a focus on more everyday practice with mass-produced objects could complement this work’s emphasis on taste and hand-made objects.
For further reading on the folkloristic approach to material culture study in Japan, Kim Brandt’s work, Kingdom of Beauty (Duke University Press, 2007), offers a historical approach to the development of the aesthetics of mingei, or the handmade craft object, under the influence of Yanagi Soetsu. Henry Glassie’s classic work, The Potter’s Art (Indiana University Press, 1999), also investigates the aesthetics of craft production of ceramics in Japan, particularly with reference to tea objects.
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[Review length: 868 words • Review posted on December 17, 2009]