The Book of Tea
by Kakuzo Okakura
List Price:
Our Price: $2.20
You Save: $2.75 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Kakuzo OkakuraEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1964-06-01
ISBN: 0486200701
Number of pages: 76
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of The Book of Tea
Book Review: Totally Enjoyable
Summary: 4 Stars
Okakura' small distillation of 'Teaism' is really a survey of Eastern philosophy. He points to Zen and Taoism as the foundational ways of thinking that anchor this idea called Teaism. There are brilliant moments of insight in this small and curious book, with many true assessments of the West's shifting perceptions of Eastern civilization. I am reminded of the late Heidegger's philosophy (and indeed Heidegger read 'The Book of Tea), particularly in essays such as 'The Thing' which point out the significance of our everyday objects and their intimate relationship to world and culture. This book is truly a small treasure of Eastern thought.
Summary of The Book of Tea
Minor classic of the Orient. Perhaps the most entertaining, most charming explanation and interpretation of traditional Japanese culture in terms of the tea ceremony. Introduction, notes by E. F. Bleiler. "Provocative and entertaining, this edition is particularly pleasing in format."-Guide to Asia Paperbacks.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 (and issued here in bilingual form), it was first published in 1906, in the wake of the naval victory over Russia with which Japan asserted its rapidly acquired status as a world-class military power. It was a peak moment of Westernization within Japan. Clearly, behind the publication was an agenda, or at least a mission to explain. Around its account of the ceremony, The Book of Tea folds an explication of the philosophy, first Taoist, later Zen Buddhist, that informs its oblique celebration of simplicity and directness--what Okakura calls, in a telling phrase, "moral geometry." And the ceremony itself? Its greatest practitioners have always been philosophers, but also artists, connoisseurs, collectors, gardeners, calligraphers, gourmets, flower arrangers. The greatest of them, Sen Rikyu, left a teasingly, maddeningly simple set of rules:
Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so that it heats the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness; in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give those with whom you find yourself every consideration.A disciple remarked that this seemed elementary. Rikyu replied, "Then if you can host a tea gathering without deviating from any of the rules I have just stated, I will become your disciple." A Zen reply. Fascinating. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Things Japanese in Zen Systems Analysis
Things Japanese - Being Notes On Various Subjects Conneced With Japanby Basil Hall Chamberlain
Hesperides Press; Published: 2006-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.76
Price in other shops:
Things Japaneseby Basil Hall Chamberlain
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London; Published: 1890; Hardcover; Book
Hagakure: The Book of the Samauriby Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Kodansha International; Published: 1992-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
The Book of Teaby Kakuzo Okakura
Dover Publications; Published: 1964-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.19
Price in other shops:
A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategyby Miyamoto Musashi
The Overlook Press; Published: 1974-09-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.55
Price in other shops:
Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defenseby Bruce Lee
Black Belt Communications; Published: 2008-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.13
Price in other shops:
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War IIby John W. Dower
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2000-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops:
Japanese Things; Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected With Japan, for the Use of Travelers and Others.by Basil Hall Chamberlain
Tuttle Publishing; Published: 1978-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.45
Price in other shops:
Things Japanese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan (Stone Bridge Classics)by Basil Hall Chamberlain
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2007-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops:
Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis: Meditations on Computer Systems Developmentby Patrick Mcdermott
IUniverse; Published: 2002-11-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.29
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
For an Architecture of Realityby Michael Benedikt
Lumen Books; Published: 1992-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Art with a Difference: Looking at Difficult and Unfamiliar Artby Leonard Diepeveen, Timothy Van Laar
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2000-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
A Natural History of the Sensesby Diane Ackerman
Vintage; Published: 1991-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.81
Price in other shops:
The Tea Companion (Connoisseur's Guides)by Jane Pettigrew
Running Press; Published: 2004-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.17
Price in other shops:
Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanenceby Andrew Juniper
Tuttle Publishing; Published: 2003-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.94
Price in other shops:
The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guideby Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2007-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.42
Price in other shops:
The Poetics of Spaceby Gaston Bachelard
Beacon Press; Published: 1994-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
The Tea Ceremonyby Seno Tanaka, Sendo Tanaka, Edwin O. Reischauer
Kodansha International; Published: 2000-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.16
Price in other shops:
In Praise of Shadowsby Junichiro Tanizaki
Leete'S Island Books; Published: 1977-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophersby Leonard Koren
Imperfect Publishing; Published: 2008-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.13
Price in other shops: