The Book of Tea

An book not just about tea but about life, art, society, religion, and history. It’s written to be read easily while learning about new concepts and to inspire the reader to think.

Kakuzo Okakura (1862-1919) was born in a Japan that had seen Commodore Perry but had not yet renounced the Shogunate. By the end of his life he had seen the Great War and Japan's first imperialistic military adventures in Korea and Manchuria that would culminate in the tragedy of the Second World War. The scion of Japanese aristocracy, Okakura chose to spend the latter half of his life as an expatriate living in Boston, Massachusetts, where he befriended the Brahmins of that city. THE BOOK OF TEA was written in this period, sometime in the nineteen-oh-ohs. Written for an American audience, it eloquently introduced the Boston bluebloods to an idealized vision of Japan, the Japan of cherry blossoms, kakemono, and Chanoyu, the Tea Ceremony. Reading THE BOOK OF TEA, one realizes that Okakura was not "selling" Japan to the West. THE BOOK OF TEA does not engage in any lacquer-box hucksterism. Rather, THE BOOK OF TEA is his paean to and his lament for a Japan of the virtues that was all-too-rapidly being consumed by Occidentally-intoxicated militarists and industrialists. THE BOOK OF TEA was written to banish the soot-stained chrysanthemums of Okakura's deepest nightmares. Although this reviewer came to THE BOOK OF TEA expecting a manual on the Tea Ceremony, this book is nowhere so vulgar as that. Yes, a manual on the highly stylized Chanoyu has its place, but it's place is nowhere without this book which penetrates to the heart and soul of the ceremony. This reviewer can honestly say that THE BOOK OF TEA provided him with comprehension, a deeper insight, and a first true appreciation for Japanese art forms, so different than the European. In its simplicity and its elegance, the Tea Ceremony is a form of Zen practice. Every element, from the atmosphere of the tearoom (called in Japanese "The Abode of Fancy," a world unto itself), the selection of the flowers, the artwork, the bamboo tea implements, the bright, sharp jade green macha tea, and the specially made jangling teapot and ceramic cups, speaks to an aesthetic foreign to the West. Okakura calls it "Teaism," a play on Taoism, and its purpose is to delight the senses, touch the heart, and place the participant fully in the present moment. Shambhala Publications has presented THE BOOK OF TEA in a fine paperbound edition, the colors, typeset, and dimensions of which please the mind. Shambhala has also provided color photographs, in truth forms of abstract art, of the tea implements in use, that add a visual dimension to this already fine book.

This book is a delightful oddity. It's about 100 years old now. It was written by a Japanese expatriate, in English, for an English-speaking audience. I mean the term "audience" in the most audible way, since this text was meant to be read aloud to the highest of the Boston Brahmins. (That attention to sound is probably a big part of why this reads so smoothly.) Kakuzo explains the Japanese tea ceremony to a non-Japanese audience. Oddly, he does not describe the ceremony. Instead, he lays out the history of tea and the history of the Zen esthetic in which cha-do ("the way of tea") makes sense. He describes the place in which the ceremony is held, and some of the tools used in that ceremony. He does not, however, spell out the mechanics of the service. Perhaps it's just as well. As Kakuzo describes, it is not the tea that matters. It is the effect that the ritual has on the people who perform it. This book is laid out simply and elegantly, as befits its topic. The primary font is a little unusual - a long-waisted serif that connotes the warm feeling of the text itself. Page layouts are airy, and have a distinctive swaying gait from as they step from chapter to chapter. The few photos that illustrate this book are atmospheric, and printed in a subdued color scheme. It doesn't equal the old slip-case edition, but it's still a pleasing and instructive sample of book design. This is a pleasant book, and a short one. The reading is over much too quickly. It is also a delightful contrast to another Japanese author writing for an English audience at very nearly the same time. Nitobe's unfortunate "Bushido" tries much too hard to explain itself in Western terms. Kakuzo, instead, expresses his home culture in its own terms, the only ones that make sense, and in much more readable language. //wiredweird PS: This edition has a new intro by Liza Dalby, the first and possibly only American woman to complete training as a geisha.

I loved this new edition and thought that the photographs were beautiful, capturing the essences of tea and giving examples( a rare thing) of actual tea implements. Unlike the reviewer who couldn't even leave a name who probably has no concept of the world of tea, I thought that the format also followed the ideals of tea by being contemporary and in the constantly evolving path of tea as given to us by Oiemoto (the current head of the Urasenke tea school). I enjoyed this book very much and have given several copies to my tea students and tea friends as well.

I haphazardly discovered this book when I had undertaken the task of better acquainting myself with tea. Totally ignorant, I opened the book half expecting to find dry writing on types of tea leaves. Instead I discovered something deeply beautiful. This book does indeed teach the history of tea and its preparation, but it also provides an eloquent introduction to Teaism and other aspects of Japanese culture. Okakura wavers most delicately between prose and poetry, between the educational and the spiritual. The words linger with you long after you have finished, and tea, once an ordinary beverage, acquires a soul-- a source of peace."Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."(Chapter One, The Cup of Humanity)