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The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo
Okakura Kakuzo

Okakura Kakuzo was a Japanese people scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea....
 in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many times.

In the book, Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism
Teaism

Teaism is a term coined by Okakura Kakuzo in his The Book of Tea. It is a synthesis of Taoism, Zen, or Zennism as he called it, and the Chinese use of tea....
 and how Tea
Tea

Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods....
 has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is accessibile to Western audiences because Kakuzo was taught at a young age to speak English; and spoke it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western Mind.






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The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo
Okakura Kakuzo

Okakura Kakuzo was a Japanese people scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea....
 in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many times.

In the book, Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism
Teaism

Teaism is a term coined by Okakura Kakuzo in his The Book of Tea. It is a synthesis of Taoism, Zen, or Zennism as he called it, and the Chinese use of tea....
 and how Tea
Tea

Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods....
 has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is accessibile to Western audiences because Kakuzo was taught at a young age to speak English; and spoke it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western Mind. In his book, he discusses such topics as Zen
Zen

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Ch?n. Ch?n is itself derived from the Sanskrit Dhyana, which means "meditation" ....
 and Taoism
Taoism

Taoism refers to a variety of related philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. These traditions have influenced East Asia for over two thousand years and some have spread to the West....
, but also the secular aspects of Tea and Japanese life. The book emphasises how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
 and architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, 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 Rikyu
Sen no Rikyu

is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony, particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyu is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyu throughout....
 and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony
Japanese tea ceremony

What is commonly known in English as the Japanese tea ceremony is called chanoyu or also chado or sado in Japanese....
.

According to Tomonobu Imamichi, Heidegger's concept of Dasein
Dasein

Dasein is a German language word famously used by Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time. The word Dasein was used by several philosophers before Heidegger, with the meaning of "existence" or "presence"....
 in Sein und Zeit was inspired — although Heidegger remains silent on this — by Okakura Kakuzo's concept of das-in-dem-Welt-sein (to be in the being of the world) expressed in The Book of Tea to describe Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosophy who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, corresponding to the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical summit of Culture of China thought....
's philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offerred to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before .

External links

  • (2,8 MB), published in and typeset by William Adams