Public Lecture: Prof. Robert Hellyer, Wake Forest University

Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan emerged as a tea exporting nation, the first state to effectively challenge China’s centuries-old monopoly of the world tea market. As the second largest export commodity after silk, tea not only boosted economic development in the push toward industrialization but also provided jobs for groups dislocated by post-Restoration reforms, notably ex-samurai who became tea farmers. Women in treaty ports also found employment in tea refining factories, which were often supervised by Chinese experts. Japanese merchants focused on creating a “Japan Tea” brand of green tea to meet the tastes of consumers in the United States, which since the early days of the republic had been a green-tea consuming nation.

This talk will explore the perspectives of the Japanese farmers, factory workers, and merchants (as well as the Chinese experts) involved in the trade, highlighting how their participation contributed to the successful formation of the Japanese nation-state. It will also examine US tea consumption to reveal ways in which US trends influenced Japan’s tea production and thus the livelihoods of those involved in the tea export trade.

Robert Hellyer is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Wake Forest University.

Event Sponsor
Dept. of History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Prof. David Hanlon, (808) 956-8486

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