In contrast with Europe, where tea drinking influenced the direction of
women’s liberation, in Japan it was affiliated with a culture that compelled
women to serve men. The causes are thought to include the nature of the tea
ceremony and women’s education, but in either case, both were created by men
and consequently reflect Japanese men’s desires of Japanese women.
On the other hand, it is very interesting that a tea culture specific to women
was able to form in Japanese society.
Furicha whisked coarse tea is found throughout Japan in many forms.
Toyama Prefecture has its batabata tea; Shimane Prefecture, botebote tea; Ehime
Prefecture, bote tea; and Tokunoshima in Kagoshima Prefecture, fui tea. The
characteristic they share is that they are actively supported by women’s groups.
In other words, even though the tea ceremony was mainly developed by men,
furicha has been preserved by women. Bukubuku tea is considered a beverage of
middle and upper class women even in Naha, and as such, can certainly be
thought of as contrasting with tea ceremony culture in the Ryūkyū Islands in early
modern times, when tea was restricted to men of the warrior class and thus characterized
as high culture. In that sense, bukubuku tea was formed on the