Omotenashi is the Japanese term for a conception of service hospitality rooted in the Japanese tea ceremony. This research explores the ways in which contemporary hospitality executives have drawn on the historical tradition of omotenashi in the tea ceremony, as well as older Japanese cultural and spiritual traditions underlying omotenashi, to re-envision encounters between service employees and customers. In high context cultures like Japan, information is widely shared, which reduces the amount of information that must be shared verbally. The nature of Japan‟s high-context culture is manifested in two important principles of the philosophy of the tea ceremony. One important principle is mutual understanding, which arise from the process of “consideration,” which involves “putting oneself in the position of others to anticipate their desires” (Surak, 2012, p. 51). A second important principle involves ritualized social interactions. As Kondo explained (1985), “… the Japanese tea ceremony is a highly ritualized version of the host/guest interaction, and a heightened expression of the emphasis on etiquette in Japanese culture in general.” He continues: “The theory is that mere good intentions are insufficient; one must know the proper form in order to express one‟s feelings of hospitality effectively (Kondo 1985, p. 288). The importance of ritualized behavior also emerges in the kata of Kendo and other Japanese martial arts, where the term kata refers to a sequence of stylized movements that are designed to cultivate “speed of movement, dynamic execution, and realistic character” (Kiyota, 2002, p. 24). Similarly, Zen discussions of secular work emphasize the value of ritualized behavior. According to Musimi (1990, p. 821), “Deeply ingrained in the minds of the Japanese people is the belief that „work‟ makes for moral culture, and man‟s character is formed through the process of working.” Arai (2006, p. 110) observed that domestic work also can be viewed as “ritualized [Zen] activity done in accord with wisdom and compassion.” We argue that current attempts to implement the spirit of omotenashi in employee training have emphasized the spiritual, attitudinal, and behavioral dimensions of omotenashi. The meaning of these dimensions reflect the ways in which executives understand and interpret the high-context nature of Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism on the Tea Ceremony and Japanese martial arts such as Kendo.

In this paper we explore the process of value co-creation in two elite kaiseki restaurant companies in Japan. The authors first describe key themes that underlie the omotenashi of the tea ceremony. The authors then examine the ways in which these themes influence the service philosopy of Teiichi Yuki, the found of the Kitcho restaurant chain, and Rikifusa Satake, the president of the Minokichi restaurant chain. Based on these analyses, we argue that existing discussions of co-creation, which focus on the customer’s creation of value-in-use, should be extended to permit the analysis of usage experiences that involve multiple, simultaneous, interdependent value-in-processes. In particular, in the two companies examined by the authors, both the master and the customer experience value-in-use during the delivery of kaiseki cuisine. Moreover, given the importance of mutual consideration, the value-in-use experienced by each party is critically dependent on the value-in-use received by the other.