✨ New Arrivals Just Dropped!Explore
$4.95
The Book of Tea—
$4.95
The Story
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 underlying toughness which clearly indicate some of the enduring differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Okakura exhibits the distinctive "personality" of the East through the philosophy of Teaism and the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. This ceremony is particularly revelatory of a conservative strain in Japanese culture; its ideals of aesthetic tranquility and submission to the ways of the past find no parallel in the major cultural motifs of the West.
Not only does he discuss the tea ceremony and its rigid formalities, and the cult and patterns of belief surrounding tea and tea-drinking, but Okakura also considers religious influences, origins, and history, and goes into the importance of flowers and floral arrangements in Japanese life — their proper appreciation and cultivation, great tea-masters of the past, the tea-room with its air of serenity and purity, and the aesthetic and quasi-religious values pervading all these activities and attitudes.
Okakura's English style was graceful, yet exceptionally clear and precise, and this book is one of the most delightful essay-volumes to the English language. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of American readers to Japanese thinking and traditions. This new, corrected edition, complete with an illuminating preliminary essay on Okakura's life and work, will provide an engrossing account for anyone interested in the current and central themes of Oriental life.
tea ceremony;eastern cultures;asian culture;japanese people;tokugawa japan;western tradition;japanese scholar;intercultural communication;tea history;tea culture;eastern thinking;chinese dynasties;sung dynasty;tea drinkers;butterfly floating;passing fair;tea masters;asian philosophy;japanese aesthetics;tea lovers;zen monastery;tea houses;asian art;zen philosophy;stagnant water;flower arranging;japanese tea;japanese perspective;western view;southern china;boston museum;universal language;western cultures;art appreciation;tea drinking;japanese life;green tea;ming dynasty;japanese art;east asian;drink tea;eastern philosophy;true spirit;cultural significance;western philosophy;interior design;fine arts;traditional japanese;true beauty;public domain;project gutenberg;rich history;western world;japanese culture;premodern;tea-room;soshi;taoists;dews;bamboos;teaism;sunbeams;teardrops;tea-drinking;evanescence;shambhala;esthetic;brocade;bushido;tearoom;confucius;powdered;customs;taoism;beverage;fishes;kettle;refinement;tang;oriental;asia;1906;westerners;purity;buddhism;harmony;architecture;simplicity;modern japanese history;american cultural history;middle eastern culture;americaThis 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 underlying toughness which clearly indicate some of the enduring differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Okakura exhibits the distinctive "personality" of the East through the philosophy of Teaism and the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. This ceremony is particularly revelatory of a conservative strain in Japanese culture; its ideals of aesthetic tranquility and submission to the ways of the past find no parallel in the major cultural motifs of the West.
Not only does he discuss the tea ceremony and its rigid formalities, and the cult and patterns of belief surrounding tea and tea-drinking, but Okakura also considers religious influences, origins, and history, and goes into the importance of flowers and floral arrangements in Japanese life — their proper appreciation and cultivation, great tea-masters of the past, the tea-room with its air of serenity and purity, and the aesthetic and quasi-religious values pervading all these activities and attitudes.
Okakura's English style was graceful, yet exceptionally clear and precise, and this book is one of the most delightful essay-volumes to the English language. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of American readers to Japanese thinking and traditions. This new, corrected edition, complete with an illuminating preliminary essay on Okakura's life and work, will provide an engrossing account for anyone interested in the current and central themes of Oriental life.
Description
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 underlying toughness which clearly indicate some of the enduring differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Okakura exhibits the distinctive "personality" of the East through the philosophy of Teaism and the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. This ceremony is particularly revelatory of a conservative strain in Japanese culture; its ideals of aesthetic tranquility and submission to the ways of the past find no parallel in the major cultural motifs of the West.
Not only does he discuss the tea ceremony and its rigid formalities, and the cult and patterns of belief surrounding tea and tea-drinking, but Okakura also considers religious influences, origins, and history, and goes into the importance of flowers and floral arrangements in Japanese life — their proper appreciation and cultivation, great tea-masters of the past, the tea-room with its air of serenity and purity, and the aesthetic and quasi-religious values pervading all these activities and attitudes.
Okakura's English style was graceful, yet exceptionally clear and precise, and this book is one of the most delightful essay-volumes to the English language. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of American readers to Japanese thinking and traditions. This new, corrected edition, complete with an illuminating preliminary essay on Okakura's life and work, will provide an engrossing account for anyone interested in the current and central themes of Oriental life.
tea ceremony;eastern cultures;asian culture;japanese people;tokugawa japan;western tradition;japanese scholar;intercultural communication;tea history;tea culture;eastern thinking;chinese dynasties;sung dynasty;tea drinkers;butterfly floating;passing fair;tea masters;asian philosophy;japanese aesthetics;tea lovers;zen monastery;tea houses;asian art;zen philosophy;stagnant water;flower arranging;japanese tea;japanese perspective;western view;southern china;boston museum;universal language;western cultures;art appreciation;tea drinking;japanese life;green tea;ming dynasty;japanese art;east asian;drink tea;eastern philosophy;true spirit;cultural significance;western philosophy;interior design;fine arts;traditional japanese;true beauty;public domain;project gutenberg;rich history;western world;japanese culture;premodern;tea-room;soshi;taoists;dews;bamboos;teaism;sunbeams;teardrops;tea-drinking;evanescence;shambhala;esthetic;brocade;bushido;tearoom;confucius;powdered;customs;taoism;beverage;fishes;kettle;refinement;tang;oriental;asia;1906;westerners;purity;buddhism;harmony;architecture;simplicity;modern japanese history;american cultural history;middle eastern culture;americaThis 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 underlying toughness which clearly indicate some of the enduring differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Okakura exhibits the distinctive "personality" of the East through the philosophy of Teaism and the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. This ceremony is particularly revelatory of a conservative strain in Japanese culture; its ideals of aesthetic tranquility and submission to the ways of the past find no parallel in the major cultural motifs of the West.
Not only does he discuss the tea ceremony and its rigid formalities, and the cult and patterns of belief surrounding tea and tea-drinking, but Okakura also considers religious influences, origins, and history, and goes into the importance of flowers and floral arrangements in Japanese life — their proper appreciation and cultivation, great tea-masters of the past, the tea-room with its air of serenity and purity, and the aesthetic and quasi-religious values pervading all these activities and attitudes.
Okakura's English style was graceful, yet exceptionally clear and precise, and this book is one of the most delightful essay-volumes to the English language. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of American readers to Japanese thinking and traditions. This new, corrected edition, complete with an illuminating preliminary essay on Okakura's life and work, will provide an engrossing account for anyone interested in the current and central themes of Oriental life.
