The Book of Tea

by Kakuzo Okakura, Everett Bleiler (Introduction)

Overview

In 1906 in turn-of-the century Boston, a small, esoteric book about tea was written with the intention of being read aloud in the famous salon of Isabella Gardner. It was authored by Okakura Kakuzo, a Japanese philosopher, art expert, and curator. Little known at the time, Kakuzo would emerge as one of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, a genius who was insightful, witty and greatly responsible for bridging Western and Eastern cultures.
Nearly a century later, Kakuzo's The Book of Tea is still beloved the world over. In this edition, readers are treated to Kakuzo's delicious wisdom along with evocative quadratone photographs in an exquisite new package. Interwoven with a rich history of tea and its place in Japanese society is poignant commentary on Eastern culture and our ongoing fascination with it, as well as illuminating essays on art, spirituality, poetry, and more. The Book of Tea is a delightful cup of enlightenment from a man far ahead of his time.
Author Bio: Okakura Kakuzo (1862-1913) devoted his life to teaching, art, Zen, and the preservation of Japanese art and culture, working as an ambassador, teacher, writer, and, at the time of his death, as the Curator fo Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum.

Liza Dalby has lived intermittently in Japan since she was a teenager. She is the first non-Japanese ever to have become a geisha. She received a PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 1978 and is the author of several books, including Geisha, and the upcoming Tale of Murasaki.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486139968
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	05/11/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	515 KB

About the Author

Kakuzo Okakura was born in 1862 in Yokohama, Japan. In 1890, Okakura was one of the principal founders of the first Japanese fine-arts academy, Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (Tokyo School of Fine Arts) and a year later became the head, though he was later ousted from the school in an administrative struggle. Later, he also founded the (Japan Art Institute) with Hashimoto Gaho and Yokoyama Taikan. He was invited by William Sturgis Bigelow to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1904 and became the first head of the Asian art division in 1910. He died in 1913.

Table of Contents

The Cup of HumanityTea ennobled into Teaism, a religion of aestheticism, the adoration of the beautiful among everyday facts—Teaism developed among both nobles and peasants—The mutual misunderstanding of the New World and the Old—The Worship of Tea in the West—Early records of Tea in European writing—The Taoists’ version of the combat between Spirit and Matter—The modern struggle for wealth and power The Schools of TeaThe three stages of the evolution of Tea—The Boiled Tea, the Whipped Tea, and the Steeped Tea, representative of the Tang, the Sung, and the Ming dynasties of China—Lu Wu, the first apostle of Tea—The Tea-ideals of the three dynasties—To the latter-day Chinese Tea is a delicious beverage, but not an ideal—In Japan Tea is a religion of the art of life Taoism and ZennismThe connection of Zennism with Tea—Taoism, and its successor Zennism, represent the individualistic trend of the Southern Chinese mind—Taoism accepts the mundane and tries to find beauty in our world of woe and worry—Zennism emphasises the teachings of Taoism—Through consecrated meditation may be attained supreme self-realisation—Zennism, like Taoism, is the worship of Relativity—Ideal of Teaism a result of the Zen conception of greatness in the smallest incidents of life—Taoism furnished the basis for aesthetic ideals, Zennism made them practical The Tea-RoomThe tea-room does not pretend to be other than a mere cottage—The simplicity and purism of the tea-room—Symbolism in the construction of the tea-room—The system of its decoration—A sanctuary from the vexations of the outer world Art AppreciationSympathetic communion of minds necessary for art appreciation—The secret understanding between the master and ourselves—The value of suggestion—Art is of value only to the extent that it speaks to us—No real feeling in much of the apparent enthusiasm to-day—Confusion of art with archaeology—We are destroying art in destroying the beautiful in life FlowersFlowers our constant friends—The Master of Flowers—The waste of Flowers among Western communities—The art of floriculture in the East—The Tea-Masters and the Cult of Flowers—The Art of Flower Arrangement—The adoration of the Flower for its own sake—The Flower-Masters—Two main branches of the schools of Flower Arrangement, the Formalistic and the Naturalesque Tea-MastersReal appreciation of art only possible to those who make of it a living influence—Contributions of the Tea-Masters to art—Their influence on the conduct of life—The Last Tea of Rikyu Afterword

Interviews

"It (Teaism) insulates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."

Editorial Reviews

Kakuzo was a leading figure in Japanese art and culture at the end of the 19th century, and this book, first published in 1906, is a classic treatise explicating the philosophical nuances of tea and the tea ceremony in Japanese culture. This edition contains an introduction by Liza Dalby who was the first American trained as a Geisha in the 1970s, and elegant photos by Daniel Proctor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"This 1906 treatise, written by Kakuzo Okakura for a western audience keen to educate themselves in eastern art and custom, details the Japanese tea ceremony and the "teaist" movement stemming from it. A blend of Zen Buddhism and Taoism, teaism used the ancient tea ceremony to foster mental discipline and a kinship with nature that would, it was hoped, lead to enlightenment. The Book of Tea became a central text in the orientalist movement of the early 1900s, and captivated poets like Eliot and Pound."

The Guardian