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JAPAN Japanese culture was influenced in many ways by the cultures of other countries. Over the years, though, it developed into a distinctive entity that had a considerable influence on others as well. The tea ceremony involves preparing powdered tea for guests according to custom and enjoying its austere taste quietly and serenely. Influenced by Zen Buddhism, the tea ceremony seeks to purify the mind and attain oneness with nature. The ceremonial serving of tea used to be exclusively practiced by nobles and priests who gave it its original form around the middle of the fourteenth century. The tea ceremony has been modified in many ways over the years. Until the end of the Edo period (1603-1868) it was practiced almost entirely by men; women joined in only after the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912). The Japanese believed that all natural phenomena, animals, and plants possessed kami, or divine power.