ABSTRACT
So much for a broad view of the way in which language usage reflects, or points to, certain features of Japanese society. But I want to continue this microlevel approach by looking more closely at two features mentioned in the previous chapter: solidarity and differentiation, on the one hand, and the distinction between tatemae and honne, on the other. To do this, I am going to look at one version of the ‘Japanese wine ceremony’—sake drinking in a small pottery community in the southern island of Kyushu.
