ABSTRACT
This first chapter will describe the nature of my research. Since my maternal grandmother1 and mother are chado¯ teachers, Urasenke chado¯ has always been a part of my life. I will therefore describe through my personal background my motivation for doing this research and then give a summary of the research questions to which this led me and how they will be addressed. But first I will give a brief explanation of Urasenke chado¯ and my fieldwork site, Akita city.
