Kakuzo Okakura, who was known in America as a scholar, art critic, and Curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, directed almost his entire adult life toward the preservation and reawakening of the Japanese national heritage -- in art, ethics, social customs, and other areas of life -- in the face of the Westernizing influences that were revolutionizing Japan around the turn of the century.
This modern classic is essentially an apology for Eastern traditions and feelings to the Western world -- not in passionate, oversentimental terms, but with a charm and...

Now available in a gorgeous hardcover slipcase edition, this "object d'art" will be sure to add grace and elegance to tea shelves, coffee tables and bookshelves. A keepsake enjoyed by tea lovers for over a hundred years, The Book of Tea Classic Edition will enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the seemingly simple act of making and drinking tea.

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, Boston's most famous socialite. It was authored by Okakura...

Written in English by a Japanese scholar in 1906, this book has become a classic. With clarity and elegance, the author, Kakuzo Okakura, defines the allure, the humanity, the evolution, the spirituality, the symbolism, and the related arts of tea.

This intriguing and enlightening volume discusses the history and meaning of the tea ceremony. A must-read for anyone who is interested in Japanese culture. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 5.5-by-8.5-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

This text offers a description of the history, underlying philosophy, and aesthetics of the Japanese tea ceremony. It is also, and more importantly, a book about how to live a meaningful life.

The Book of Tea is a fascinating examination of Japanese thought and culture through its most central element - the tea ceremony. It was written in 1906, at a time when Japan was becoming a major player on the international scene. Author Kakuzo Okakura's fluency in English and expertise in the traditional arts rendered him uniquely qualified to help promote understanding between Japan and the West. The book offers a detailed account of the spiritual and philosophical significance of "the way of tea," tracing it's Taoist and Zen Buddhist roots, as well as a more material look at the effects of...

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. It was first published in 1906, in the wake of the naval victory over Russia...

Zen and the art of tea-the classic book about the Japanese tea ceremony that is as much a guide to life

For a generation adjusting painfully to the demands of a modern industrial and commercial society, Asia came to represent an alternative vision of the good life: aesthetically austere, socially aristocratic, and imbued with spirituality. The Book of Tea was originally written in English and sought to address the inchoate yearnings of disaffected Westerners. In a flash of inspiration, Okakura saw that the formal tea party as practiced in New England was a distant cousin of...

Teaism has shaped all aspects of Japanese life. The simplicity of tea infuses Japanese architecture and art, as well as its spiritual institutions. Okakura Kakuzo's book-length essay about tea and its role in Japanese culture was written in English and intended for the Western reader.