An in-depth look at the dynamic cultural world of tea in Japan during
its formative period
Around Chigusa investigates the cultural and artistic milieu in which
a humble jar of Chinese origin dating to the thirteenth or fourteenth
century became Chigusa, a revered, named object in the practice of
formalized tea presentation (chanoyu) in sixteenth-century Japan. This
tea-leaf storage jar lies at the nexus of interlocking personal
networks, cultural values, and aesthetic idioms in the practice and
appreciation of tea, poetry, painting, calligraphy, and Noh theater
during this formative period of tea culture. The book's essays set tea
in dialogue with other cultural practices, revealing larger cultural
paradigms that informed the production, circulation, and reception of
the artifacts used and displayed in tea. Key themes include the
centrality of tea to the social life of and interaction among warriors,
merchants, and the courtly elite; the multifaceted relationship between
things wa (Japanese) and kan (Chinese) and between tea and poetry;
the rise of new formats for display of the visual and calligraphic arts;
and collecting and display as an expression of political power.