COSMIC TEA BOWL: THE RITUAL SERVING OF
FOOD AND DRINK IN JAPAN

Barbara Lynne Rowland Mori

ABSTRACT

 Using a Symbolic Interaction analysis of interview and participant observation data of teachers and students collected in Japan, this paper explores the ways in which Japanese teachers, using the medium of a traditional art - chado, teach their students to create within a closed and scripted environment an understanding of the way Japanese society functions.  The ritual serving of food and drink conducted in chado is a vehicle for learning about traditional Japanese values and practices.  Some students are attracted to an art form that offers a particularly Japanese way of living and set of values that are sometimes missing for people in a world that seems to contain things, spaces and places with a predominantly Western aspect.  Students learn to manipulate objects, space, time, symbols and people to create a specific atmosphere and pattern of interaction that is designed to produce a certain perspective on the world and way of perceiving reality.  Students learn to apply this not only to the tea room environment but to the home and other situations in Japanese society.  Japanese teachers teach their students to create and sustain an artificial reality and to use this to manage interpersonal relationships.  This paper explores the way in which students learn the concepts of honne  (non-scripted events) and tatemae  (scripted reality) in the process of learning the art of preparing and serving tea and food.


 
 INTRODUCTION

 This paper will explore the way in which food preparation and service in the traditional art of the Japanese tea ceremony (chado) is used to teach the students to construct a definition of the meaning of life as held by the masters of the Urasenke School of Chado  and seen as the "traditional Japanese" way of life. The study of chado  is a way of learning and creating culture (defined as values, symbols and practices) and defining reality.  This paper argues that the study of chado  is not only the study of an art aesthetic and ritual but primarily the learning of symbols and the construction of reality by participants that is meant to provide them with a means of identifying and  defining situations and enabling the learner to become part of any on-going activity in Japanese society.   Students learn to manipulate objects, space, time, symbols and people to create a specific atmosphere and pattern of interaction that is designed to produce a certain perspective on the world and way of perceiving and defining reality.  Students learn to apply this not only to the tea room environment but to the home and other situations in Japanese society.  The outcome of studying chado  is a person who can be described as sunao  (amenable)  The student is training the self through the study of ritual.
 This paper will analyze the way in which the study of the traditional art of chado  teaches people the concepts of honne  and tatemae.   Honne  is defined as non-scripted reality, the truth you know or sense, genuine motives, feelings, thoughts or actions.   This is often something that should be held as private, meant only for group insiders.  Tatemae  is defined as scripted reality; the way things are presented to outsiders; the way things should be according an accepted pattern, system or definition; the way things are expected to occur, sometimes a facade; the face shown to the world.  Honne  and tatemae  concepts are not unique to Japan but provide an insight into the way in which Japanese view reality and structure social behavior.  In some ways they are similar to the concepts of front stage and backstage behavior described by Goffman (1959, 1963).  Chado  overtly teaches the application of honne  and tatemae  through tea ritual.

THEORY

 The theoretical orientation which has informed this research is the Symbolic Interactionist perspective (Berger and Luckman 1967, Blumer 1969,  Charon 1979, Hewitt 1984, Goffman 1959, 1963, Manis and Meltzer 1967, McHugh 1968, Stryker 1980).  This is briefly summed: behavior of an individual is in response to symbols, is relative to the audience and relative to the situation.  This conception of social interaction applies to chado  in three ways: 1) interaction in a tea ceremony ritual (temae ) is between a host and one or more guests expressly involved in the process of creating a situation of shared feeling and meaning through the use of predominantly non-verbal symbols; 2) the teaching of the art is an interactive process where the student has an opportunity to learn acceptable ranges of behavior and possibly modify these;   and 3) studying chado  is an exercise in creating shared meanings and defining acceptable behaviors.
 "Human conduct is situated and cannot be really comprehended apart from the actual contexts in which it occurs" (Hewitt 1984 p.140).  Therefore, the nature of a situation as a location, an intersection of space, time and meaning needs to be established before human conduct can be interpreted.   "A situation, in other words, is a matter of definition - it is an assembly of socially defined objects located at a particular intersection of time and place that is itself a matter of social definitions." (Hewitt 1984, p. 140).
 For the purpose of this research, culture is interpreted to be inclusive of social structure (enduring interaction behavior patterns), values, language -symbols, and technology -arts.  The process by which culture is created and taught is an interactive socialization process of learning in intensive and non-intensive relationships, formal and informal settings, during the life of the individual.  This process is refered to as role-taking when the individual is learning specifically the behaviors, values and attitudes to fit an identified role and position in the culture.

METHOD

 As a vehicle for studying the creation of culture and defining of reality, chado  is an apt choice because not only is it viewed by Japanese as the ideal representation of Japanese culture (Castile 1976, Kato 1981, Sen 1988 1979a 1979b, Suzuki 1959, Tanaka 1973), it has a clearly defined and enunciated set of values, organizational structure (iemoto  system - household headship system) and interpersonal patterns (host-guest, teacher-student).  It provides formal, tearoom, and informal settings to observe teachers and students.  Urasenke, the largest school (an estimated 70% of all people who study chado  are members and the school boasts a 2 million membership worldwide, Castile 1976) was chosen as a case study.  Settings for observation and interviewing were chosen on the following criteria:  1) distance from the center (degree of closeness and supervision by the iemoto - grand master, head of the school); 2) size of the area (large city, rural); 3) intensity of study (professional or amateur; daily, weekly or sporadic lessons); 4) type of study situation (institute, junior college, temple, private home).  Interviews with 25 teachers and 50 students were conducted in Kyoto at Urasenke headquarters (Konnichi-an) and with teachers and students in Urasenke formal study groups, such as the Urasenke Semmon Gakko, the 2 and 4 day Group, The Saturday Group and others, all under direct auspices of the Sen family.   Interviews were also held with members of the Kyoto Shibu (teachers' organization) and with assistants and students at various study sites.  In Tokyo, interviews were conducted at three Urasenke affiliated training centers and in private teachers' homes.  In Yokohama, interviews were held at the homes of private teachers.
 Students and teachers interviewed and observed are members of a number of groups.  At least one student of each teacher was interviewed, and all of the teachers interviewed were also observed teaching.  The organization of the group was  a significant factor in the student's learning experience and support provided to the teacher.   Although the locations and facilities differed, a similarity of atmosphere in all teaching situations was noted.
 
HONNE  AND TATEMAE

 As human conduct is situated and cannot be comprehended apart from the actual context where it occurs, so too is reality defined as a product of time, place, actors and situation.  Reality (truth) is acknowledged in Japan as relative.  What will be told or accepted as true or real depends upon a number of factors, such as: the relationship between the speaker and the listener; the situation under which the information is revealed; the presence or absence of an audience and the relations of the speaker and the listener to the members of the audience; outside loyalties affecting the participants concerning what is being revealed; any consequences identified as accruing as a result of the revelation; and whether the speaker in fact knows what actually occured (honne ) or only has an "official" (tatemae ) or sanctioned version of events to recount.
 In chado, tatemae  is the scripted reality of the tea room, the official version of stories concerning the school, the definition of chado  as a value set, events and traditions of the Sen family, the nature of the relationship between iemoto  and tea practitioners and between teachers and students.  Honne  is, of course, what actually happens to people, the conflict, the disputes, the mistakes, the socially unacceptable behavior of members.  Tatemae  is not merely a fabricated story to impress non-members.  It is chado  as its practitioners want and believe it to be.  It is chado  in its "pure" form, free of human foibles, the ideal that all members strive to create, that embodies beauty and nurturing relationships between people.  It is this "truth" about chado  that the members try to make happen and it is the "truth" that the members want outsiders to see and appreciate.  Where actual events deviate from this, they are to be managed but not allowed to change the definition or practice of the art.   "Truth and morality are ...specific to the interaction at hand...The Japanese tend to accept apparent contradictions as complementary facets to the same truth." (Kiefer 1976 p, 281).

CHADO  PATTERNS AND PERSPECTIVES

 Chado  over its 500 year history  has developed an articulated set of values which describe a world view and networks that link members on various levels.  The values espoused and taught by chado  are those that are identified as being on the "traditional" end of the value spectrum in Japanese society.  Chado  values include a set of aesthetic concepts relevant to its practice as an art form.  The relationship networks reflect the diversity of goals within the teaching of the art.
 Chado  has developed a world view based on ideas introduced by its founders, particularly Sen Rikyu (1522-91)(Castile 1976, Sen 1988 1979a 1979b, Tanaka 1973).  This world view seeks to place people in specified relationships and patterns that create a feeling of harmony or balance among people, places, situations and objects.  This is part of the tatemae  of chado.  This does not mean the world is harmonious or that people have no conflicts but that the world and human interactions should be managed so that there is an appearance of harmony and balance.   This is the ever mentioned concept of wa .  To achieve this, values such as respect (kei  ), purity (sei ) and tranquility (jaku  ) are stressed  This sense of harmony is not meant to be a spiritual feeling of peace and oneness only but to encompass the way in which people behave toward others.  It requires constant accommodation, flexibility and a willingness to accept direction and conform (to be sunao ).
 The values mentioned above are highly influenced by Zen Buddhism (Kasulis 1981, Hammistszch 1980, Sen 1988 1979a, Suzuki 1959 1973).  Zen has contributed to chado  an emphasis on action over words, non-purposive action over purposive action,  non-verbal communication taught by observation and trial and error over lengthy lectures and a concern for self-improvement based on self-mastery attained by developing concentration.  The aim is to produce a state of mind rather than a philosophy.  The individual is expected to demonstrate a willingness to live in accordance with the prevailing situation without recourse to abstract principles, in a type of eternal present.
 The concepts relationed to chado  identified with Zen are : mu-i  - non-purposiveness, mushin - no-mind or selflessness, and muhinshu - lack of distinction (or merging) between host and guest.  The practice of tea ritual (temae ), like Zen meditation, is aimed at freeing the mind from the concerns of the body and building awareness of one's surroundings through concentration.
 It is in the context of performing tea ritual in the tea room setting that these values and their acceptable expression are taught.  Individuals who study are presented with this world view in a clear and unambiguous manner and have the option to conform or leave.
 The aesthetic concepts in chado  are derived from the basic idea of mono no aware, an intense identification of the individual with the surrounding environment emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the world.  In chado, this is developed in terms of themes for tea gatherings, poetic names for utensils and a concern for the relationships and styles of objects used.  A specific expression of this is seen in the concept of wabi, a sense of subdued austerity, sometimes seen as a glorification of scarcity or poverty.
 The social values critical to chado  focus on interpersonal relationships and the development of self-identity through one's relationships to others.  This stresses the importance of being connected in an hierarchical pattern.  There are no equals in chado  and everyone is subordinate to the head of the school.  Manners and etiquette are the daily language of hierarchy (Elias 1978).  They constitute a secularized form of morality and for chado  adherents may be the only formalized moral code they respect.  It is the teaching of manners and etiquette, basic human interaction skills, that is identified by professional teachers as the purpose and goal of the study of chado.  The overriding value, of course, is loyalty to the school, the Sen family and their goals.
 The social networks in chado  encompass an hierarchical relationship pyramid between teachers and students under the head of the school (the iemoto  system).  All members of the school are considered students of the Grand Master or iemoto.  This, too, is part of the tatemae  of chado.  Schematically this is diagrammed through a series of ranks but in actuality the relationships between teachers and students are interlocking and students may be studying with more than one teacher and some people may not have connections to people above them in the ranking network.
 Ranking based on ritual knowledge recognized by the granting of certificates but this does not equate with the actual ranking of an individual in the system.  Relationships and status of an individual not only reflect standing with regard to knowledge acquisition or a relationship to a teacher but standing in Japanese society outside of chado,  family status and connections, and the ability to make significant economic, political and social contributions to the school.
 All of these will affect the respect accorded and accommodations made for an individual as well as opportunities, benefits and rewards given by the school.  The values expressed by chado  are sometimes in conflict with the practice or reality of chado.  Although  the value of wabi  is austere, an aesthetic sense of poverty, it is not the only aesthetic value and does not mean there is a glorification or promotion of actual economic poverty.  Some of the values of chado  seem to contradict each other.  This reflects the diversity of contributions to the art.  There is no overt attempt to remove or ameliorate these seeming contradictions.  It is a matter of personal preference and taste. It is acknowledged  that contradictions are part of life and the individual must manage these as best as possible.  The method suggested is situational application.  The tatemae  is of wa, harmony and balance; the honne  is the jostling for position and favor found in any group of people where access to people in higher positions means attaining personal goals and recognition.  People come to learn how to manage these very human and not gentle aspirations not because they are saints.
 The goals of learning chado  are multiple, depending on how the individual perceives the art form and what it is they come to study (Mori 1988).  Some study chado  for reasons of status, to be perceived as a "cultured" person of taste.  Some study chado  as a leisure activity, to provide a sense of escape or release from pressures of modern Japanese life or for fun, to spend a pleasant afternoon with friends.  Some study to find a "Japanese" identity, to learn the art forms and values identified as core to being a member of Japanese society, different from the Westernized aspects of living encountered in daily life.   Some study for the purpose of personal improvement, to acquire as sense of spiritual growth or social graces.  Whatever the individual goals, the product of chado  study is not an artifact, or knowledge and performance of ritual but a person who is able to fit in with others and with any situation.  The person demonstrates self-control, the ability to endure difficulties silently and accept criticism even if unmerited, and a strong sense of loyalty.
 The student-teacher relationships are the important links where transmission of chado  values and practices occur.  There are two types of relationships in the transmission chain, that between a student (seito ) and a teacher (sensei ) and a senior  (sempai ) and junior (kohai ) students.  Senior students are responsible for teaching the practical aspects of learning chado, how to prepare and clean-up after a lesson, the etiquette of the learning situation (how to greet the teacher, pay fees and fit into the group) and the basics of the rituals (warigeiko  ).  The first lessons a beginning student receives are from sempai  and are usually how to be a guest and parts of a temae  (ritual).  When these are learned the process of preparing tea is learned from the teacher.  Teaching etiquette begins from the first day.
 These relationships are built on amae  (interdependence).  The student is encouraged to develop close relationships with the teacher and fellow students.  Evaluation of the student's proficiency in the ritual takes a secondary place to the evaluations of the individual's ability to work well with others, to develop a sunao  personality.  Students are expected to learn by observation and imitation.
 The depiction of the teacher-student relationship in the stories of the past masters and in the published works on tea, follow the Zen pattern of the master-disciple relationship.  This is mainly described as between men.  This is the tatemae  aspect.  The honne  is that approximately 80% of the both teachers and students are female.  While they accept the model as valid, few women are able to make the total commitment to chado  described in the relationship.  The model is accepted because the underlying values are not seen to be gender specific by the women who choose to study.  The relationships that develop are seen to follow the values identified if not the actual behavior that would occur between male teachers and students.  Close ties develop but they don't exactly fit the model.  These ties however are enduring and in many cases the teacher comes to play an important role in the life of the student, not only as a teacher of chado  but as an advisor and role model.  This is another example of the distinction between honne  and tatemae .  This relationship pattern is held to be what is occuring even though the strict disciple pattern is only possible for those few males who seek to study to become masters under the iemoto .  The pattern is pleasing in the abstract but the reality of its demands are less appealing given the opportunities and attractions of modern life in Japan so few young men seek this full-time commitment .
 These relationship patterns, host-guest and teacher-student, have clearly indicated and diffuse behavioral expectations.  Within them there is room for negotiation and re-interpretation to adapt to modern Japanese life.  This can be seen in the career patterns that develop for women.  A professional career as a teacher has fewer class or social limitations as compared to men.  Young women identify it as a career acceptable to family and society.  It is compatible with devotion to the roles of wife and mother, yet provides the satisfying feeling of being economically self-supporting .  It can provide economic support for a woman who cannot find a spouse acceptable to both self and parents or a for a woman who has failed at marriage or been widowed young.  An older woman may pursue it as a career while or after completing a marriage career (after the children are raised or as a widow).  As chado  receives social acceptance for augmenting women's roles as wife and mother and is frequently an acknowledged part of "bride-training", it is difficult for a husband to forbid study or teaching.


CREATING AND TRANSMITTING CULTURE

  Culture, for the purposes of this discussion, is defined as consisting of symbols, behavior, relationships and artifacts.  Artifacts or utensils for tea are continually being created for new styles and new ceremonies, to add diversity to the selection of items for use.  Artifacts, such as tea bowls, tea scoops, kettles, scrolls, etc. are not only items in themselves but also are used as symbols of cosmological and social meaning.  For example, a scroll hung in the alcove will have a simple phrase such as "the pine tree is ever green" (matsu ni kekkon iro nashi  literally "as for the pine its color doesn't change).  This has philosophical meaning in terms of continuity and endurance and chado  relevant interpretation in suggesting the perpetuation of the art .  The people viewing it become connected to people who have enjoyed it in the past and can project connections to people who will enjoy it in the future.  The inference of the color green connotes the color of tea and is a name for a specific study group .  It was the color used to designate the highest ranking members.   The scroll has social meaning through the writer, who it was written for and way it is displayed for this set of guests.  It has artistic meaning in the style and formality of the calligraphy and the materials used to frame it.  Students are expected to learn to see the scroll in all of these different levels of meaning, all of which constitute the "reality" of the scroll and are the basis for constructing the purpose and "reality" of the gathering for tea.
 Behavior in chado  encompasses ritual and relationships.  The ritual in tea room is governed by a continuum of formality - formal, semi-formal and informal (shin, gyo, so ).  These classifications are used to categorize utensils, situations, and locations.  Behavior and demeanor adapt to the degree of formality identified.  The more formal rituals are taught after several years of study and the student has the opportunity to observe senior students.
 Rituals include set preparations and servings of tea, food and fire called temae  and collections of temae  rituals called chakai and chajiTemae  is a ritual preparation of tea by a host for a guest or guests.  For a chakai  or group meeting to enjoy tea, the host selects an occasion and invites a number of guests (usually from three to several hundred).   The location chosen is usually a traditional Japanese style room in a house or other building (for example in a temple) or free standing (a tea hut).  The host chooses a particular ritual suited to the guests and occasion .  The host (or hosts)  and her helpers prepare hand-made sweets and purchase specially made candy sweets with designs or shapes that reflect the season or nature of the occasion.   They chose appropriate utensils such as tea bowls, serving dishes, flower vases, scrolls, tea scoops, etc. that are artistically pleasing for the guests to enjoy.  A favorite type of tea (prepared by a noted tea grower) is chosen.  On the appointed day, the guests arrive.  They are shown to the tearoom and the tea ritual is performed.   If many guests are invited, they will be brought in in groups and a number of temae  will be performed until all guests have been served tea. The temae  ritual consists of three parts: the entrance and set up, the preparation and serving of tea to the guests and the clean up and utensil appreciation.  Sweets are served first to the first guest who takes and passes the sweets to the others just before being given the tea to drink.  The host brings in the utensils she will use to make and serve the tea.  The first three guests are served tea made by the host in front of everyone.  The other guests are served tea by the helpers which is brought out from the preparation room.   After everyone has been served, the host will clean some of the utensils in front of everyone before removing them from the room.  The tea scoop and tea container will be placed for the guests to admire.  The host will answer questions about these utensils and then the ritual will be concluded and the guests will leave.
 A chaji  is a four and a half hour series of preparations.  Depending on the season the order varies.  The guests, usually five to seven in number, watch two different layings of charcoal (sumidemai) at the beginning and middle of the series.  The guests are treated to a seven course meal called a kaiseki,  referring to the warm stone kept near the stomach by Zen priests to ward off hunger while meditating, which consists of servings of soup, rice, braised fish, grilled mountain vegetables and seafood, boiled foods, pickles and sake.   They are served the sweet for the first preparation of tea.  A brief respite is given for the guests to walk in the garden and refresh themselves.  Then they are called to return to the tea room.  There are two servings of tea: koicha  or thick tea and usucha  or thin tea.  The koicha  ritual is somewhat somber and all the guests drink out of the same bowl.  A flower  and a scroll are displayed in the alcove.   The usucha  ceremony is like the ritual used for the chakai  described above.  The tone is much lighter and the guests chat with the host about the utensils, occasion and related topics.   After this ceremony the guests leave.  During the tea preparations there are a series of expected movements in the ritual of the serving requiring learned responses.  The first guest in each setting is responsible to help maintain the flow of events.  It is a very choreographed interaction.
 The rituals (temae ) are taught by rote memorization and repetitive practice.  While learning the movements of the temae , the student is not only learning appropriate behavior but also which utensils to use, context, tea lore and history and how to interpret what is happening.  The temae is the script for the interaction.  The movments for the preparation are graceful, intricate and precise.  Both host and guest must practice to learn the proper form, order and accompanying phrases.  Temae is not action for the host alone. It is interactive.  The guest must also know when action and responses are required.  The tatemae is a ritual performed smoothly without mistakes or interruption.  Reality, honne, is that people do make mistakes.  They spill tea and water.  They forget responses or get caught up in doing something and forget their lines.  They get ahead or behind the sequence.  This occurs but is managed by being flexible (sunao )so these lapses do not cause pause in the sequence or make others to forget their cues.  Learning is not only how to do the things but how to take these blunders into account and so to still produce what appears to be a flawless performance.
 In chado, the main interpersonal relationship is between a host and a guest or guests.   In the context of the temae, both have parts to play essential to the events of the ritual.   The guest is a participant not a spectator.  The purpose of the temae  is the enjoyment of the guest.  A simple (or not so simple) act of serving tea and food to a guest becomes  a conduit for developing personal relationships and for conveying a theme, sense of time and place and feeling for another, primarily through non-verbal means by choices made by the host of occasion, location, utensils and guests.  Highly scripted in pattern yet intensely personal, the tea ritual is both tatemae  and honne.


CREATING AND MANAGING REALITY

 Discussions of symbolism and events of chado  frequently justly focus on the ideal pattern or interactions in chaji, temae  and keiko  (lesson) to assess the impact of ritual, gain a sense of the intent of the study, and acquire an understanding of the appeal of long-term intense practice of the art.  In learning to interpret or establish a situation's meaning, a particular individual must be able to identify the constituent parts, correctly identify the symbolic meaning of these parts singly, in combination and as a whole, and act in accordance.  Learning temae  is a method of learning which singles out these components for the student and, in the lesson (keiko ) enable practice with correction on the processes of identifying and creating symbolic meaning with objects, space, ritual movement and other actors.
 Problematic in the process of interaction are "degrees of sharedness" or incomplete knowledge of the other; lack of knowledge of the symbolic content and relative importance of object, space and time; management of knowledge; role performance and thematic organization of meaning.  In the process of learning temae, the student is guided through the patterns with constant repetition.  The learning process itself is overt and later becomes the underlying frame.  The learning environment (with commentary provided by the teacher and other students) provides information on the symbolic content of objects, space and time.
 Since space is problematic because part of our definition of "who we are" depends on "where we are" and "who we are with", the meaning of space must be identified on more than one dimension.   The Japanese terms ma, aida  and kan  (same character) denote a combination of physical and temporal space, whereas the English term "space" primarily connotes physical space.  Part of what is learned in the process of learning temae  is not only ritual actions but proper calculations of intervals and the imbuing of meaning of both action and non-action space and time.  The student learns to associate ma  with wa  (harmony, balance) and yet deal with kan (interval, discord) when pause or cessation may be due to discord, lack of synchronization or lack of proper cue or response.
 The meaning of "where we are" not only is defined in terms of room, type of situation (formal, semi-formal, informal), stage in the ritual process but also where one sits in relation to the process and role to be played.  In learning temae, roles are simply host and guest (although the guest role or roles may have added dimensions in terms of numbers or status identity that the host must take into account).  Both roles are learned in the temae  practice, but usually the host role is paid the most attention.  Observation, as well as imitation, is important in the processes by which this learning occurs.  The observer is expected to learn with the participant so when his/her turn as performer comes (in either role) the teacher can concentrate on corrections rather than initial teaching.
 Warigeiko  (learning parts of a temae  with another student or sempai) is often where actual movement teaching takes place.  In temae, under the teacher's eye the integration of movements into patterns is taught and corrected.  In chaji  (a four and a half hour gathering for tea consisting of several temae), roles are for the duration of several temae  (for the making of tea, laying of charcoal for the fire and serving food) and the number of players is increased (two is the usual number in practice but three, five or seven are the number of guests commonly invited to a chaji).
 "People know what to expect of one another in particular situations because they know that various types of people behave in typical ways under particular circumstances (Hewitt 1984  p. 153)."   "Role-taking is a process in which people are attuned to the typification others are using to interpret their behavior, and role-making becomes a process in which the individual seeks to devise conduct in such a way that others will make desired typification (Hewitt 1984 p. 154)."  In doing both temae  and chaji the learner takes the appropriate role; performs the ritual movements; asks the proper questions or provides answers; gives and responds to cues; synchronizes movements and pace of cues given to each other to the varying tempo of different temae  (and within temae ); interprets the symbolic meaning of space, objects and time in terms of a theme (not always given). Through this process the student comes to some understanding of the relationship of human beings to the cosmos and other human beings, self-improvement, spiritual enlightenment and self-fulfillment.  When this has been successfully accomplished in keiko  or when actually doing a chakai  or chaji, the participants experience a reported "high", a feeling of intoxication or euphoria (Mori 1988).
 Definition of the situation through reality construction is what the student is learning.  The student also learns methods by which he/she can exert control over situations and their definition by becoming the definer of the meaning of objects, space and time.  "One effective technique for exercising control over the definition of the situation is by controlling such physical elements (Hewitt 1984 p. 174)" and the interpretations of the physical elements.
 The process of learning also teaches the student to accept and believe in the definition and interpretations of reality, e.g. the constructed reality of the tearoom, provided by the teacher who by extension becomes the reality of Japanese society.  The teacher is questioned about meaning but the answers are never questioned or doubted (at least not publicly).  This belief in the teacher (and by extension reality) is essential to success in chado.   "The very routine and stable everyday reality that we create maintains itself to a great extent because we believe in it and continue to remake it in our acts (Hewitt 1984 p. 174)."  Through this process of action, role-taking, symbolic attributing and learning, the student comes to accept, practice and believe in not only the philosophy of chado  but also  the Japanese  society which underlies it.  "In dealing with and especially talking about these matters, we give shape and substance to our ideals, our values, and our conception of how things work in society and how we think they should work Hewitt 1984 p. 190)."
 If the student wishes to reject the interpretation of the world, place of humans and individuals within both the world of chado  and Japanese society as seen through the experiences provided by the teacher, the student must reject the teacher and the practice of chado  in toto.  Contradictory views and experiences which may produce dissonance are harmonized through interpretation with the chado  view of the world or screened from the chado  environment.  Where possible, it is up to the practitioner to either ignore, reinterpret or explain them in some personally acceptable manner.
 The practitioner of chado  learns to construct a reality (the reality of the tea room encounter) and sustain that construction for the duration of a temae  from 20 to 45 minutes  to that of a chaji  from four to four and a half hours.  The construction is unlike that of a drama or a play where the playwright uses actors to perform for an audience which is induced to suspend disbelief to follow the action.  Rather the host creates a unique encounter.  The playwright/host is an actor and the audience, also actors, are part of the drama, with the merest outline of a script (temae  ).
 Thus doing a temae, chaji  or keiko  combines the elements identified in the Symbolic Interactionist perspective (objects, acts, meanings, role-taking, role-making, symbols, environment, self and other) to construct a reality.   Chado  provides the nature and general content of tea room reality and teachers expect success or just the experience of participation will provide the individual with insight and skills to deal with reality beyond the tea room.
 Within Japanese society (allowing for distinct regional and class difference) a preference for cultural value transmission based on environmental control and range of behavioral expression has emerged.  The ideal setting for chado  is a hermitage, a secluded hut on a mountainside or a temple setting with limited dimension an sparse accouterments surrounded by greenery.  This is the tatemae  environment.  In the 500 years that have passed since the introduction of chado  and the beginnings of the practice of chado  as an art (acknowledging that these settings were restricted to an elite and not commonly available at the time) such settings have become increasingly rare.  The honne  is that many of those once remote settings are now surrounded by urban developments.  Some have become the object of massive pilgrimages on weekends or school trips by students in search of history and culture.  Japanese style homes completely floored with tatami  (reed mats) with tokonoma  (alcoves) are very expensive to build.  In the urban and even rural areas, there has been a substantial shift to predominantly wood and concrete flooring with maybe one or two tatami  rooms.
 For the average Japanese and chado  practitioner, the impact of these changes in the physical environment have a significant impact on daily life and learning the art.  The once secluded tearooms are now available for viewing and study.  Some of these rooms are even available for chakai, chaji or even having a bowl of tea when visiting.  The practice of chado  in the home is less available unless specifically planned for when building the structure and is impossible for many urban dwellers who are limited to predominantly Western style apartments or residences.  Limited space has always had to be accounted for in planning a chado  environment, for example when planning the roji  (dewy path - entrance way to the tea house) in the garden, "borrowed" scenery  was often part of the plan.  Now the plan must accommodate spaces to be "disattended" such as large skyscrapers, noisy buses and neon lights.  Temperature and heating control in homes and public buildings has become more widespread to mitigate against the harshness of winter and summer but this also detracts from the sense of seasonal feelings, of feeling apart of the seasonal changes going on around you that are important to the practice of chado.   The extensive use of Western style furniture and rooms means that the average Japanese can no longer sit comfortably on tatami  floors.  The adoption of the Western calendar in daily use is not compatible with the seasonal variations associated with chado, for example plum trees don't bloom in January, the beginning of spring.  Improvements in public transportation and communication make attendance at chado  functions all over Japan and the world possible and teachers more accessible.  Widespread use of clocks and watches has created a different attitude toward time.  Industrialization and major changes in work for both men and women have had a profound affect on the organization of daily life and leisure, providing leisure in some cases to those who never had it before.  Consequently, some people are encouraged to study chado.  The application of new techniques and development and importation of new materials in the arts has increased the variety of utensils available for use in chado.  Thus all the changes are not necessarily negative but offer challenges and new opportunities even if meaning some ways of doing things in the past are no longer available or must be modified.
 Chado  is a very resourceful art.  The changes in Japanese society and the environment are not all negatively defined even though they may require deviation from the "traditional" way of doing things.  Accommodation to these changes has been made by finding ways to circumvent those changes seen as negative and incorporate those deemed useful and innovative.  Some of the changes indicated above have had a variety of responses.  Chado  is done outside the home at the teacher's house or at a dojo  (training center) or other such location which provides the "correct" physical setting.  As a leisure activity, it is an acceptable outlet for housewives who with fewer children and smaller homes to clean have time for socially approved leisure, as it enhances their domestic skills and increases family prestige.   Urasenke offers lectures to its Gakkuen students and its members in other locations not only on how to construct a traditional tearoom but how to modify Western style or urban settings to create a conducive environment.  Through its mail order house, prefabricated tea huts are available.  In practice, students are taught to concentrate and "disattend" unwelcome intrusions into the environment, such as not seeing towering buildings, not hearing traffic and not smelling car exhaust.  Students are taught to endure the coldness of winter with only the hearth (ro ) to provide warmth and accommodate to the sweltering heat of summer without turning on the air conditioner.  Students are gradually taught to sit on tatami  floors.  Chado  temae  such as ryurei  which utilize furniture allowing the student to sit on a stool are often taught at the beginning.  Students must learn the chado calendar of events and work to bring it into accord with the Western calendar of everyday life.  Telephones are excluded form the chado  tea room environment, and proper forms of letter writing and invitations are specifically taught.  Television and other mass media are used as a way to propagandize chado.  The Urasenke school has been very active in publishing a wide variety of materials on chado  history and practice.  Watches are not permitted in the tea room, but chakai  and chaji  are scheduled to accommodate to the rhythms of modern life.  Though plastic is eschewed as being non-natural, glass, crystal, industrial ceramic, Western designed and made articles and new techniques for working materials are wholeheartedly embraced as adding to the creative dimension.
 Although chado  is an art form developed in a specific environment, it has shown an ability to adapt to changes in that environment both in Japan and abroad.  Students are taught to aim at creating a traditional environment where possible and ways to accommodate to the variety of environments they will encounter.  While students and teachers may lament the lack of a traditional environment to fully learn chado, they nevertheless create the environment they need.  They become sensitive to their surroundings, to objects that may be utilized and to themselves.  They learn to direct their senses and attention to produce the environment and atmosphere identified with the practice of chado.
 Part of the management of the reality of chado  is the control the schools and  the Sen families exert over what is disseminated to the public about chado.  The iemoto 's (household head) authority, influence and control over the art of chado  has been a major factor in its perpetuation and propagation.  The iemoto  system has maintained and strengthened chado  by establishing those schools of tea founded by Sen Rikyu, their families and Oiemoto (Grand Masters, heads of the schools and families) as national arbiters of taste, style and cultural knowledge.  This control is manifest through teacher training and recruitment, curriculum content, certification of knowledge and the granting of the right to teach, and outreach to the public through the mass media.  It is also accomplished by creating a tightly structured professional hierarchy through teacher-student linkage and by creating regional chapters (shibu ).  The iemoto ' s headship rights (sodan ) enable him to oversee all activities of the members of the school. He is responsible for all that goes on but will delegate responsibilities to those below him.  He is able to punish as well as reward.  All publications and public activities require his official approval.
 In the creative aspect of the art, it is the iemoto  who sanctions new utensils and styles for use within the school and can forbid the use of unrecognized objects and utensils made by unsanctioned craftsmen.  Utensils are developed through relationships with established craft families (Senke Jushoku) as well as new artisans whose work meets his standards.   Each iemoto  establishes his preferences (konomi mono ) in utensil types and designs, these then become part of the utensil repertoire available for students.  Through authentication (hakogaki ), he establishes a sense of taste.  Other ways of exerting influence over the utensils used for chado  are through officially recognizing certain craftsmen and utensil dealers and encouraging members to patronize these people, by engaging in utensil sales, by assisting museums and other exhibitors in displaying utensils for public viewing, by providing assistance to scholars and researchers of the arts, and through financial support to individuals and institutions which promote the study and practice of chado.  By being the authority and definer of chado's symbolic content, the iemoto  perpetuates the art through an hereditary system that enables continuity and creativity.
CONCLUSIONS
 In looking at the values espoused , the behavior patterns taught, the environment created and the role of the school and the Sen families, it can be seen that the study of chado  provides a means for Japanese to learn and apply the concepts of tatemae  and honne.  Chado  creates its own version of tatemae  in the process of tea rituals, the official stories of the history and practice of chado, the definitions of the relationships of host-guest and student-teacher, and the atmosphere to be sustained in the tea room.  The students learn the movements of the ritual.  They learn how to create the desired atmosphere and interaction through non-verbal means by choices of utensils, places and occasions based on the various levels of symbolic meaning they hold, how to adapt these to various environments and how to adapt the self to fit roles in the on-going tableau.  They learn the tatemae of chado, what is its ideal form, what it should be, how it should feel and how to maintain this in the face of events and situations (honne )  that do not follow that ideal and to convince themselves and others that the ideal has been maintained, experienced and transmitted.  One of the roles of chado in Japanese society is to teach ways to define and manage reality.

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