The Book of Tea
A Japanese art critic explains the tea ceremony to Western readers, and through it Zen, simplicity, and how a culture teaches attention. Quietly argued throughout.
Things worth knowing
- Okakura wrote it in English to carry his ideas to readers outside Japan; by then he was curator of the Oriental art division at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
- The first chapter glosses a Japanese figure of speech: a man with no tea in him is blind to the seriocomic drama of other people, while a man with too much tea in him runs riot in emancipated emotions.
Checked against source.
Listen, or read along
Every chapter has the recording and the same chapter as text. Open both if you like: the text is the words you are hearing.
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1 Chapter One 15 min
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2 Chapter Two 16 min
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3 Chapter Three 19 min
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4 Chapter Four 22 min
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5 Chapter Five 13 min
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6 Chapter Six 19 min
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7 Chapter Seven 8 min
Where this comes from
US public domain: first published 1906, before the 1930 cutoff. Author d.1913, so also clear in life+70 jurisdictions.
Cover image: Okita of the Naniwa-ya Tea-house - print by Kitagawa Utamaro, 1790s.
Narration: text-to-speech.
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