Cover of The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura Ebook The Book of Tea
Ebook · The Big Nest

The Book of Tea

Author
Kakuzo Okakura
Series
Ideas for Life
Language
English
Length
54 pages
ISBN
9781910660300
Published
15 December 2014
Imprint
The Big Nest
  • Tea
  • Zen
  • Taoism
  • Japanese life
  • Teaism
  • simplicity
  • Tea ceremony
  • Japan

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Description

The Book of Tea by Kakuzō Okakura is a lyrical and philosophical exploration of tea and its profound role in Japanese culture, aesthetics, and spirituality. Written in English, it uses the Japanese tea ceremony as a lens to introduce Western readers to Zen, Taoism, and the ideals of simplicity, harmony, and reverence for beauty. Okakura contrasts Eastern and Western thought, celebrating the quiet wisdom of the "way of tea" as a form of art and ethical living. More than a treatise on tea, it is a poetic meditation on humility, impermanence, and the soul of a nation. A timeless classic of cultural insight.

Author

Kakuzo Okakura (1863–1913), also known as Okakura Tenshin, was a Japanese scholar and art critic who defended traditional culture in the Meiji age of rapid Westernisation. The Book of Tea, written in English, presents tea ceremony as a philosophy of harmony, respect, and the simple life — and quietly rebukes Western caricatures of Asia. Okakura remains a bridge: aesthetics as a way of seeing, and of pouring.

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