China is home to a long-established and flourishing tea culture. In many ways, Japanese culture is fundamentally influenced by China. In its earliest form, Japanese tea practice was no more than a duplicate of Chinese tea culture, but over time, it gradually took on its own features, leading to the formation of the uniquely Japanese “way of tea”.

Today we will introduce how the Japanese tea ceremony – or chadō （茶道）, the way of tea – first originated from China before evolving into something quite different from Chinese tea culture.