Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Book of Tea
    The Book of Tea
    The Book of Tea
    Audiobook2 hours

    The Book of Tea

    Written by Kakuzo Okakura

    Narrated by LibriVox Community

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo 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 and how Tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is noted to be accessibile to Western audiences because though Kakuzo was born and raised Japanese, he was trained from a young age to speak English; and would speak it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts in the Western Mind. In his book he elucidates such topics as Zen and Taoism, 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 and architecture, 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 and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. (Summary from Wikipedia)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLibriVox
    Release dateAug 25, 2014
    Author

    Kakuzo Okakura

    Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) was a Japanese scholar. Born in Tokyo, Okakura was the son of a silk merchant. At fifteen, having learned English at the school of Christian missionary Dr. Curtis Hepburn, he enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied under esteemed art historian Ernest Fenollosa. In 1887, Okakura cofounded the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, but was ousted from his role several years later. He spent his career as one of Japan’s leading cultural ambassadors, travelling throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia in his capacity as a lecturer. In 1910, he became the first head of the Asian art division of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His major literary works, most of which were written in English, include The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903), The Awakening of Japan (1904), and The Book of Tea (1906).

    More audiobooks from Kakuzo Okakura

    Related to The Book of Tea

    Related audiobooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Seeds of Perversion

      Feb 22, 2018

      We Brits are blithely accepting of our national beverage. We consume tea at 60.2 billion cups a year, but don’t give a thought to how it came to be so embedded in our society and national identity. ’Great’ Britain’s rapacious colonialism; the ruthles

      11 min read

    • Article

      Such Sweet Sorrow

      Apr 1, 2022

      NOW THAT NOTHING is much fun any more, what better moment for a proper revival of the “English malady”? No, not sodomy, flagellation, or any of those traditional pastimes, I mean the inclination to melancholy which for centuries was the thing that fo

      5 min read

    • Article

      Back to Nature

      Jun 22, 2022

      ON November 27, 2020, Mo Wilde, a herbalist, forager, Lyme disease specialist and member of the Linnean Society, decided to eat only ‘wild’ food for a year. Fortunately, she lives in West Lothian, with access to sea and rivers, stalker and wine-makin

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 22, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      The road to Book Pyre Beacon

      Nov 25, 2021

      MY LITERALLY maiden aunt was a censorious miserly bitch whose hobbies and interests included sly denigrations of her sister-in-law (my mother), sponging, confecting vinegary ketchup which took the enamel off teeth and insisting that her drab house wa

      3 min read

    • Article

      Spring Book Reviews

      Aug 30, 2018

      by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books, Port Elliot by Stephen Orr Published by Wakefield Press ISBN 9781743055748 $27.95 Stephen Orr has compiled a series of short, true stories of our confrontation with the country’s arid centre and the conflicts betwe

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Modern Way Of Mourning

      Sep 29, 2022

      I WATCHED THE OLDER GENTLEMAN FUMBLE with his ticket. A thick tie knot just short of his shirt’s top button spoke of a return to formality of dress for someone now long used to the comfortable sartorial consolations of retirement. He had a day Travel

      6 min read

    • Article

      History From The Bottom Up

      Feb 1, 2023

      History From The Bottom Up
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      If It Weren't for Tea

      Aug 3, 2023

      If It Weren't for Tea
      8 min read

    • Article

      At Home in England

      Aug 1, 2023

      At Home in England
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Jul 15, 2021

      Reviews
      6 min read

    • Article

      Winter Book Reviews

      Jun 22, 2020

      A prolific and celebrated Australian writer of her time, Thea Astley wrote fifteen novels and had two short story collections published between 1958 and the turn of the century. She won numerous literary awards, including the Miles Franklin (Australi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Eroded Tropes and Fears and Consequences: The Millions Interviews Alyson Hagy

      Sep 28, 2018

      It’s been 18 years since Alyson Hagy and I both won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Nested within the list of grantees was a scattering of addresses. I wrote to Alyson. She answered. We’ve seen each other just twice in all these yea

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Girl Who Lived

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Girl Who Lived
      4 min read

    • Article

      Language Shapes Us

      Mar 7, 2022

      Language Shapes Us
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Mysterious Middle Ages

      Jul 7, 2023

      The Mysterious Middle Ages
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Book of Tea

    4/5

    16 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Beauty, mystery and pain is the roller-coaster of this sweet journey. Never have I ever read such beauty, mystery and pain in a book. Beauty in connecting the past with the present, mystery in the journey of ancestors past and pain in the ever approaching end. I shall read this one again.
    • 5/5
      Breathtaking. How this is not a more well known artistic master piece, and teaching is perhaps part of the mystery contained within it
    • 3/5
      It’s missing chapter 3. Otherwise a book which has very little to do with tea, moreso provides poems and histories which might be related to tea.
    • 5/5
      This book has given so much insight and depth. I feel a sincere Gratitude to Okakura to compiling these words in such beautiful ways.