Body-mind discipline for life: The non-conformity of contemporary Japanese tea ceremony practitioners

The Japanese tea ceremony has taught its practitioners how to discipline one's body and mind through the acquisition of specific body movements. This self-discipline has urged tea ceremony practitioners to conform to authorities and the patriarchy, most notably the iemoto, or specific families...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian journal of social science 2022-09, Vol.50 (3), p.206-213
Main Authors: Kato, Etsuko, Yajima, Aiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appropriation
Authority
Body-mind autonomy
Patriarchy
Self-discipline
The Japanese tea ceremony
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Summary:The Japanese tea ceremony has taught its practitioners how to discipline one's body and mind through the acquisition of specific body movements. This self-discipline has urged tea ceremony practitioners to conform to authorities and the patriarchy, most notably the iemoto, or specific families patriarchally monopolizing the right to issue permissions to tea ceremony practitioners. This paper elucidates how contemporary tea practitioners have been succeeding but also appropriating the self-disciplinary attitudes for their own self-serving purposes. Based on ethnographic data, the paper argues that married women practitioners during and after Japan's postwar economic growth, and young company workers-practitioners in the 21st century, are distancing themselves from the iemoto system and the patriarchy, while making use of them in their respective ways. These cases indicate that body-mind discipline can help one become an autonomous individual who does not need to submit even to the very authorities from whom that self-discipline was learned.
ISSN:1568-4849
2212-3857
DOI:10.1016/j.ajss.2022.08.010