The Book of Tea: The Classic Work on the Japanese Tea Ceremony and the Value of Beauty [Hardcover]

Kakuzo Okakura (Author), Hounsai Genshitsu Sen (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2006

The Book of Tea has served for more than a century as one of the most perceptive introductions to Asian life and thought in English. Publication of the book was a pioneering effort in the cultural bridge-building between East and West. Kakuzo Okakura perceived chanoyu-literally, "the way of tea"-as a form of spiritual culture, a disipline that transforms itself into the Art of Life.

In writing of chanoyu, his concern was the broad current of Asian culture flowing eastward from India, and its potential contribution to the culture of all humankind. Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, and Chinese and Japanese aesthetics are discussed, giving voice to traditional Asian values and ideals that had been little recognized in the West. Thus, he sought to convey the spirit of chanoyu as a crystallization of the cultural life of the East.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

That a nation should construct one of its most resonant national ceremonies round a cup of tea will surely strike a chord of sympathy with at least some readers of this review. To many foreigners, nothing is so quintessentially Japanese as the tea ceremony--more properly, "the way of tea"--with its austerity, its extravagantly minimalist stylization, and its concentration of extreme subtleties of meaning into the simplest of actions. The Book of Tea is something of a curiosity: written in English by a Japanese scholar (and issued here in bilingual form), it was first published in 1906, in the wake of the naval victory over Russia with which Japan asserted its rapidly acquired status as a world-class military power. It was a peak moment of Westernization within Japan. Clearly, behind the publication was an agenda, or at least a mission to explain. Around its account of the ceremony, The Book of Tea folds an explication of the philosophy, first Taoist, later Zen Buddhist, that informs its oblique celebration of simplicity and directness--what Okakura calls, in a telling phrase, "moral geometry." And the ceremony itself? Its greatest practitioners have always been philosophers, but also artists, connoisseurs, collectors, gardeners, calligraphers, gourmets, flower arrangers. The greatest of them, Sen Rikyu, left a teasingly, maddeningly simple set of rules:

Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so that it heats the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness; in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give those with whom you find yourself every consideration.

A disciple remarked that this seemed elementary. Rikyu replied, "Then if you can host a tea gathering without deviating from any of the rules I have just stated, I will become your disciple." A Zen reply. Fascinating. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...The best introduction to Oriental life and perception in English." --TEA A Magazine

"The Book of Tea is beautifully designed and will make an excellent small gift, especially since tea has become fashionable." --New Age Retailer

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (February 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770030142
• ISBN-13: 978-4770030146
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,362,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing recognition, July 19, 2010

By 

François M (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Tea (Kindle Edition)

I loved this book. It explains the essence of Taoism, Japanese culture, and I recognized so much of my own experience of religion - originally Christian protestant, not practising. This book is a real eye opener. If you are looking for a book about tea you may be disappointed, it is a book about a way of life.

89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tempest in Tea Cup, July 27, 2000

By 

"eido" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Tea (Paperback)

I haphazardly discovered this book when I had undertaken the task of better acquainting myself with tea. Totally ignorant, I opened the book half expecting to find dry writing on types of tea leaves. Instead I discovered something deeply beautiful. This book does indeed teach the history of tea and its preparation, but it also provides an eloquent introduction to Teaism and other aspects of Japanese culture. Okakura wavers most delicately between prose and poetry, between the educational and the spiritual. The words linger with you long after you have finished, and tea, once an ordinary beverage, acquires a soul-- a source of peace.

"Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates 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."

(Chapter One, The Cup of Humanity)

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy of Tea, December 14, 2010

By 

Jacob (Saitama, Japan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Book of Tea (Kindle Edition)

This books is a quick and informative introduction to the philosophy underpinnig "Teaism". The book outlines how tea masters tried to live their lives according to the simple grace of the Japanese tea ceremony.

For those looking for detailed instructions on conducting a tea ceremony, look elsewhere. But for those who want a handbook on a way of life, read further