Woman Taking Tea, from the series Customary Japanese Female Ettiquette

A print from the series "Customary Japanese Female Etiquette" depicting a woman taking tea — one of the ritual social practices that defined the expected behavior of educated Japanese women. The tea ceremony, in its formal (chado) and informal (sado) expressions, was central to feminine cultural education in Meiji Japan, and the act of preparing, serving, and receiving tea carried an elaborate protocol of gesture, posture, and speech that made it simultaneously an aesthetic practice and a social discipline. Chikanobu's documentary image captures both the physical act and its social meaning.