American's Studying the Traditional Japanese Art of the Tea Ceremony: The Internationalizing of a Traditional Art

Recent interests in learning from Japanese business practice and other aspects of social life are being viewed in a global context. The Urasenke school of chado (the Japanese tea ceremony) has been exporting its practice since the early 1950s. This study provides an opportunity to study the ability of a Japanese art to teach its practice and social structure to non-Japanese. This work contributes to our understanding of Japanese culture and its adaptability to outsiders, and the process by which non-Japanese learn to behave as Japanese in the setting of the tea room through the learning of cultural symbols and ritual behavior.