Japanese Tea Ritual: Religion in Practice

The meaning of Japanese tea ritual, chanoyu, is discussed with emphasis on its character as a religious activity with soteriological goals. There is a brief summary of the historical origins of the ritual's syncretic philosophy, information on the organisation of the ritual conplex and a symbolic analysis of a model tea gathering. The author is herself a practitioner of chanoyu, and the relevance of this participation for anthropological analysis is also discussed.