The Book of Tea - Kakuzo Okakura

Written by Kakuzo Okakura
Read by Sadao Ueda
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps

The Book of Tea: Penguin Classics

Brought to you by Penguin

This Penguin Classic is performed by Japanese actor Sadao Ueda, known for his appearances in Spectre, London has Fallen and What We Did on Our Holiday.

For a generation adjusting painfully to the demands of a modern industrial and commercial society, Asia came to represent an alternative vision of the good life: aesthetically austere, socially aristocratic, and imbued with spirituality. The Book of Tea was originally written in English and sought to address the inchoate yearnings of disaffected Westerners. In a flash of inspiration, Okakura saw that the formal tea party as practised in New England was a distant cousin of the Japanese tea ceremony, and that East and West had thus ‘met in the tea-cup.’

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The Book of Tea

The Book of Tea (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō is a long essay which examines the role of chadō (Teaism) in the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life. The author explains Teaism as “a philosophy founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence”. Originally written in English for a western audience, the essay deals with the spiritual traditions of Zen and Taoism, as well as the secular side of tea in Japanese life. The author shows how tea as a metaphor inspired the elegant simplicity which characterizes - inter alia - the art and architecture of Japan. According to the philosopher Tomonobu Imamichi, Martin Heidegger’s concept of “Dasein” was inspired by Kakuzō’s expression “being-in-the-worldness” for the philosophy of Zhuangzi who composed a foundational text of the Tao. Kakuzó concludes that Teaism in itself serves as a universal remedy for promoting peace and tranquillity.