- The Book of Tea
"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 howTea has affected nearly every aspect ofJapanese culture , thought, and life. The book is accessibile to Western audiences because Kakuzo was taught at a young age to speak English; and spoke it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western Mind. In his book, he discusses such topics asZen andTaoism , 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 affectedart andarchitecture , 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 aboutSen no Rikyu and his contribution to theJapanese Tea Ceremony .According to
Tomonobu Imamichi ,Heidegger 's concept of "Dasein " in "Sein und Zeit " was inspired — although Heidegger remains silent on this — by Okakura Kakuzo's concept of "das-in-dem-Welt-sein" (to be in the being of the world) expressed in "The Book of Tea" to describeZhuangzi 's philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offerred to Heidegger in 1919, after having followed lessons with him the year before Tomonubu Imamichi, "In Search of Wisdom. One Philosopher's Journey", Tokyo, International House of Japan, 2004 (quoted byAnne Fagot-Largeau at her [http://www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/phi_sci/p1184676830986.htm lesson] at theCollege of France of 7 December 2006) ] .References
External links
*gutenberg|no=769|name=The Book of Tea
* [http://members.aol.com/willadams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf The Book of Tea] (2,8 MB), published in [http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/ The TeX showcase] and typeset by William Adams
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