The Japanese Tea Ceremony Transformation: From Buddhist Practice to Secular Leisure

Tea culture in Japan has more than a thousand-year history, and its heritage is still alive today. Interest is the study of the past and the present. The relevance of the work due to several circumstances. The first is the already mentioned vigorous activities of tea schools and styles. Sado is developing in the new conditions of globalization and interdependence. Never before have so many people around the world been involved in this traditional art. The second circumstance is the vivid interest of foreigners (including our compatriots) in the tea culture of Japan. In addition, the study of sado provides the key to understanding Japanese society, establishing good neighborly relations and strengthening cultural ties between Russia and Japan. At the moment, many moral and ethical norms are changing, so cultural traditions are reinterpreted and viewed through the prism of a sociological approach. In this respect, there are several aspects that are in focus of such research. The work is a historical-cultural study of tea and the phenomenon of chanoyu. The work covers the historical gap from the 9th to the 21st century. During this time, tea practices have undergone significant changes and took on different forms. Every time when it entered a new strata, it changed - in the monastic environment the tea ceremony became regulated, among aristocrats, on the contrary, turned into a form of unrestrained leisure. The samurai brought a political component to the tea ceremony, and now various forms of its manifestations are considered - meditation, play, competition, way of upbringing, political tool and, at present, the way of bringing people together.