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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Arts and Architecture THE ART OF LEARNING TEA: EMBODIED TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES IN THE INTERCULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE TEA INSTITUTE AT PENN STATE A Thesis in Art Education by samantha shoppell © 2018 samantha shoppell Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science December 2018 The thesis of samantha shoppell was reviewed and approved* by the following: Kimberly A. Powell Associate Professor of Education, Art Education, Music Education, and Asian Studies Thesis Advisor Wanda B. Knight Associate Professor of Art Education, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies B. Stephen Carpenter II Professor of Art Education and African American Studies Director of the School of Visual Arts *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ABSTRACT This ethnographic case study investigates Japanese tea ceremony, or chanoyu, as it is practiced in the context of an American university club where students are taught both by certified tea masters in master-led lessons as well as by each other through peer practice. By resituating tea ceremony outside of Japan, it becomes an intercultural medium through which students are able to engage with Japanese cultural ideas that inform their understandings of their practice. One of the primary ways these understandings are transmitted is through the Japanese approach to practice, okeiko, which is reliant upon hierarchical structures that define the expectations and roles within student-teacher relationships. The qualities of okeiko can be seen in master-led lessons, and to a lesser extent in peer-led practice. Through these non-Western approaches to practice, students learn to engage in different ways of learning, including a focus on the embodied and sensory elements of tea ceremony. Through practicing the tea ceremony, students learn to discipline their bodies and develop their sensory perceptiveness. In addition to the cultural components of the ceremony, the focus on the body and sensory experiences allows chanoyu to become a relational practice, where participants attend to others’ needs and comfort through the tea ceremony. The embodiment involved in this tea practice and students’ deep concentration on accommodating others begin to influence and manifest in their everyday lives. Together, these qualities affect practitioners’ concept of tea ceremony as an art practice deeply connected with ordinary living, and in turn, this can help art educators reflect on conceptualizing art as a practice that is both embodied, relational, and a way of influencing everyday life. Keywords: Japanese tea ceremony, okeiko pedagogy, culture in education, embodiment, living art practice iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... vi PREFACE .................................................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. x Chapter 1 Entering the Tea Room – Introduction ....................................................... 1 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2 Acclimating to Tea Room Geography – Navigating Between Local and Global .......................................................................................................................... 10 Locating the Chanoyu Club and the Tea Institute ................................................................ 11 Chapter 3 Contemplating the Scroll and Flowers – Historical and Pedagogical Contexts ....................................................................................................................... 19 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 20 Historical Contexts .................................................................................................................... 21 Contemporary Perspectives ....................................................................................................... 26 Viewing the Kettle and Brazier ........................................................................................... 33 Gaps in Research ...................................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 4 Greeting the Host, Carrying in Tea Utensils – Methodology ................... 39 Tools of Inquiry.................................................................................................................. 43 Bowing Together ................................................................................................................ 47 Participants ............................................................................................................................... 48 Folding the Fukusa ............................................................................................................. 49 Procedures ................................................................................................................................ 51 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 56 Cleansing the Utensils ........................................................................................................ 56 Ethics and Positionality ............................................................................................................. 60 Credibility and Validity ............................................................................................................. 63 Chapter 5 Savoring the Sweets – Blending Cultural Elements with Okeiko Pedagogy ..................................................................................................................................... 65 Culture as a Point of Entry and Transition ........................................................................... 67 Cultural Translation Between Japan and the U.S. ....................................................................... 70 Language Usage ........................................................................................................................ 80 “One Word: Respect” ................................................................................................................ 83 Exceptions of the Club Situation................................................................................................ 85 Preparing a Bowl of Tea ..................................................................................................... 88 What Is “Okeiko”? .................................................................................................................... 92 Okeiko Pedagogy Adapted ......................................................................................................... 96 Peer-Led Practices................................................................................................................... 117 Chapter 6 Taking a Bowl of Tea – Teaching and Learning Through Embodied, Sensory Experience ................................................................................................... 119 The Role of the Body ....................................................................................................... 120 iv Discipline and Bodily Movement ............................................................................................ 120 Flow of Learning with the Body .............................................................................................. 128 Teaching with the Body........................................................................................................... 130 Material Interactions ............................................................................................................... 136 Sensory Experience ................................................................................................................. 143 Chapter 7 Observing the Tea Bowl – Tea Ceremony as a Relational, Aesthetic Practice ...................................................................................................................... 152 Relationality ..................................................................................................................... 154 Relating Through the Body ..................................................................................................... 154 Relating Through Cultural Ideas .............................................................................................. 158 Relating to the Experience of Other Disciplines ....................................................................... 162 Tea and Daily Life ............................................................................................................ 169 Ordinary Tea Movements ........................................................................................................ 170 Tea Philosophy in Life ............................................................................................................ 173 Is It Art? ........................................................................................................................... 175