The Book of Tea

By Okakura Kakuzō

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō (1906) is a long essay linking the role of tea (teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life. Addressed to a western audience, it was originally written in English and is one of the great English tea classics. Okakura had been taught at a young age to speak English and was proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western mind. In his book, he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of tea and Japanese life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzō argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture, and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyū and his contribution to the Japanese tea ceremony. According to Tomonobu Imamichi, Heidegger's concept of Dasein in Sein und Zeit was inspired – although Heidegger remained silent on this – by Okakura Kakuzō's concept of das-in-der-Welt-sein (being-in-the-worldness) expressed in The Book of Tea to describe Zhuangzi's philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: May 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9783961896950

Okakura Kakuzō

Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) was a Japanese scholar. Born in Tokyo, Okakura was the son of a silk merchant. At fifteen, having learned English at the school of Christian missionary Dr. Curtis Hepburn, he enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied under esteemed art historian Ernest Fenollosa. In 1887, Okakura cofounded the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, but was ousted from his role several years later. He spent his career as one of Japan’s leading cultural ambassadors, travelling throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia in his capacity as a lecturer. In 1910, he became the first head of the Asian art division of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His major literary works, most of which were written in English, include The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903), The Awakening of Japan (1904), and The Book of Tea (1906).

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2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE BOOK OF TEA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. THE CUP OF HUMANITY

II. THE SCHOOLS OF TEA

III. TAOISM AND ZENNISM

IV. THE TEA-ROOM

V. ART APPRECIATION

VI. FLOWERS

VII. Tea-Masters

I. THE CUP OF HUMANITY

Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism--Teaism. 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.

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe. It represents the true spirit of Eastern democracy by making all its votaries aristocrats in taste.

The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer, painting--our very literature--all have been subject to its influence. No student of Japanese culture could ever ignore its presence. It has permeated the elegance of noble boudoirs, and entered the abode of the humble. Our peasants have learned to arrange flowers, our meanest labourer to offer his salutation to the rocks and waters. In our common parlance we speak of the man with no tea in him, when he is insusceptible to the serio-comic interests of the personal drama. Again we stigmatise the untamed aesthete who, regardless of the mundane tragedy, runs riot in the springtide of emancipated emotions, as one with too much tea in him.

The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say. But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup. Mankind has done worse. In the worship of Bacchus, we have sacrificed too freely; and we have even transfigured the gory image of Mars. Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius, the piquancy of Laotse, and the ethereal aroma of Sakyamuni himself.

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others. The average Westerner, in his sleek complacency, will see in the tea ceremony but another instance of the thousand and one oddities which constitute the quaintness and childishness of the East to him. He was wont to regard Japan as barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace: he calls her civilised since she began to commit wholesale slaughter on Manchurian battlefields. Much comment has been given lately to the Code of the Samurai, --the Art of Death which makes our soldiers exult in self- sacrifice; but scarcely any attention has been drawn to Teaism, which represents so much of our Art of Life. Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilisation were to be based on the gruesome glory of war. Fain would we await the time when due respect shall be paid to our art and ideals.

When will the West understand, or try to understand, the East? We Asiatics are often appalled by the curious web of facts and fancies which has been woven concerning us. We are pictured as living on the perfume of the lotus, if not on mice and cockroaches. It is either impotent fanaticism or else abject voluptuousness. Indian spirituality has been derided as ignorance, Chinese sobriety as stupidity, Japanese patriotism as the result of fatalism. It has been said that we are less sensible to pain and wounds on account of the callousness of our nervous organisation!

Why not amuse yourselves at our expense? Asia returns the compliment. There would be further food for merriment if you were to know all that we have imagined and written about you. All the glamour of the perspective is there, all the unconscious homage of wonder, all the silent resentment of the new and undefined. You have been loaded with virtues too refined to be envied, and accused of crimes too picturesque to be condemned. Our writers in the past--the wise men who knew--informed us that you had bushy tails somewhere hidden in your garments, and often dined off a fricassee of newborn babes! Nay, we had something worse against you: we used to think you the most impracticable people on the earth, for you were said to preach what you never practiced.

Such misconceptions are fast vanishing amongst us. Commerce

Reviews for The Book of Tea

[cameling_2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I should have thought to read other reviews about this book before picking it up because I thought this was going to be a book that told me all I'd want to know about tea. What it turned out to be is a book that doesn't live up to its title.I was expecting to read about the history of tea, who started to drink it first, how they drank it, and how the practice of drinking tea spread. The initial chapters did manage to cover some of this, and I enjoyed the first third of the book as it traced the practice of drinking tea through China, Japan and India. It also introduced Taoism, Buddhism and Zen philosophy but that was a nice complement to the practice of drinking tea. From there, we went into the architecture of Japanese tea houses and at that point, all references to tea seemed rather incidental as the author took us then to comparisons between the Japanese minimalist approach to artistic perfection in architecture, interior decoration, art and flower arrangement. I was expecting to learn about how the different types of tea were grown and harvested. I was expecting to learn about how the teas are blended, how different cultures drink their tea and how their tea drinking practices evolved over time. I was expecting to learn about tea ceremonies (if any) in different countries and the significance behind the rituals. There were references to tea masters in this book, but no explanation about how one became a tea master ... I assume it's more than just drinking and making copious pots of tea? I was expecting to learn about any medicinal properties in tea, and even how tea is sometimes used in some cuisines. I was expecting to read about the evolution of tea from its simple beginnings to the more complex offerings available today.And all my expectations were left unfulfilled. The author appeared to have forgotten what he started out to write.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am an avid tea drinker. I must drink multiple cups a day. While I prefer black tea usually, I have found that I am fond of an occasional cup of green, white, or oolong. This, of course, does not include the teasans I also like to drink: mate, rooibos, the like. I like me a good cup of tea.When I discovered The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo, I knew that I had to read it. Okakura has written here a delightful gem tracing the history of tea, including the history of Teaism, as well as describing the Japanese tea ceremony. In addition, he goes into detail about things that went hand-in-hand with tea, including zen, and some philosophical thoughts on things like flowers, which have their place in the tea ceremony.If you would be interested in a deeper history of tea, at least as far as the Japanese tea culture was involved as of the turn of the 20th centure, then this book is indispensible. While it doesn’t cover much if any of the UK tea customs, I found that it stood well as a useful resource to anybody who has a curiosity regarding tea.Much enjoyed, albeit with a cup of Earl Grey. I won’t tell if you won’t.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Book of Tea was published in 1906 in North America, where its Japanese author had been living for a number of years. Having grown up in Japan but with a largely Western education there for his earlier years, he sought all the more to connect with his Japanese cultural heritage throughout the rest of his life. Working in a number of artistic institutions and museums, he became expert on the Japanese and Eastern artistic and cultural traditions, and their historical development. What we have here is almost as much a musing on beauty, humanity, and nature, as it is a book on tea. As we come to appreciate through this book, tea and its associated aesthetics, whether or not they are central to the traditional Japanese spirit of culture, are at the very least representative of it as a whole.The aesthetics and practice of tea consumption in Japan differs greatly from tea in China, India, and the West due to a number of historical, social, geographical and philosophical differences between these cultures. This is very much a book on the Japanese culture of tea, which centres around their tea ceremony, though we are supplied with the relevant contextual detail from other regions to appreciate the interplay of these factors and their importance in determining the quintessentials of the Japanese way.As a short (90 pages) and very enjoyable read, I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in tea, world history, aesthetics, or Japanese or Eastern civilisation. Though primarily the work of an aesthete, there is also much to interest the reader in terms of social and anthropological thought. For a hectic modern society that spends so little time in quiet contemplation and enjoyment of the simple things, this book provides a welcome refreshing contrast.

[andrewblackman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a delightful book, written about 100 years ago, about the tea ceremony, its spiritual roots and its influence on Japanese culture.The writer traces the roots of the tea ceremony in Taoism and Zen Buddhism, emphasising the importance of enjoying the present moment and seeing beauty in small, everyday things. He shows how the purity and simplicity of the tea-room came from emulation of the Zen monastery, and this in turn influenced Japanese architecture for centuries. There were some wonderful observations, for example on the deliberate avoidance of symmetry or repetition in the decoration of the tea-room, on the grounds that "True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally completed the incomplete." The process was more important than attempting a perfect end result.The writing itself is a thing of elegant beauty. Here's a brief example:"The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."

[identitea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

More about Zen than tea, but still a very inspiring read.

[bookdivasreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great introductory book into the "art of tea" from an Asian perspective.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not going to ooh and aah over this book. There is some lovely writing in here, but I'm rather lukewarm at best on this one. A mildly interesting book that was first published in 1906. My edition was published in 2005 and includes a forward and afterward by Hounsai Genshitsu Sen which is almost as interesting as the book itself, and invaluable in helping to understand this book. The book is a bit of a history lesson on tea and Japanese culture and ways of thought. More about the Japanese way of thinking and appreciation for certain arts than anything else. When it was published Japan was just embarking on a path that was not enlightened. It is impossible for me to not think about what was to come. The author clearly believes the East is better than the West. I was hoping for a bit of enlightenment, but came away unimpressed.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

More about spirituality than actual tea, it's not a bad read if you like that kind of thing, but some of the more Zen chapters are a touch wishy-washy or just downright impenetrable if you aren't in the right frame of mind. Maybe that's the point.

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Okakura uses tea, a drink partaken of in both East and West, as a way of demystifying Japanese culture and challenging Orientalism in Europe and America. Written in English for a Western audience, it is a wonderfully poetic introduction to Japanese culture and aesthetics.

[pondlife_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting and short book. It covers some of the history of Tea in China and Japan, but focusses more on the cultural, religious and artistic aspects of tea drinking, the tea ceremony and the tea house.

[carolee888 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura gave a history of tea and the Asian philosophy of tea. It is important to note that the author died in 1913 before major world events and that his ideas reflect an ethnocentric view which may have been common when he was living.Tea originally was thought of as medicinal only but later gained recognition as a beverage in 8th Century China. Teaism is a cult in Japan that emphasized purity, cleanliness and simplicity. This philosophy compared emotions to tea. There could be too little tea or emotion or too much. My favorite parts of this book are the discussion of the evolution or the three ways of preparing tea. The first way that tea was prepared was by boiling it with rice, ginger, salt, milk and spices until you have a cake to make tea from. It is still prepared that way in Tibet and Mongolia.The second way developed in the Ming Dynasty is powdered tea. This is called the whipped method and does not use salt. It began in Southern China but this method only survives in Japan where the Mongols were unable to take over. Along with this, the simple tea room and the tea ceremony developed in Japan. The ceremony and drinking of tea is supposed to drive away fatigue.The Ming Dynasty in China started using steeped tea which the Western world is familiar with. Tea was best enjoyed in porcelain cups.What I didn’t like in this book was the assumption that the Japanese way of Teaism is the best way. The author criticizes the Western way and instead of thinking of them as just different assumes that the Eastern way is best.I did enjoy this e-book very much, especially the history of tea and the discussion of the requirement s of Japanese tea rooms and the philosophy of Teaism. I just touched on the topics in this book; the author goes into great depth on them.I do recommend it but you will need to accept the authors’ assumptions about which culture is better, West or East.

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not actually about tea as much as it's about the way the tradition of the tea-house influenced the Japanese aesthetic. Interesting, touching - and not a terrible introduction to Zen, either.