The Book of Tea (Okakura)
The book of tea (original title: The Book of Tea ) is a book by Okakura Kakuzō . It was first published in 1906, written by him in English.
content
The book of tea consists of seven chapters:
The bowl of humanity
Okakura goes into the importance of tea for Japanese culture. He notes that tea culture was originally adopted from China and that tea was initially viewed as a medicine. Japanese culture knows the expressions of people who “have no tea or too much tea in them”, which means that the tea culture is essential for being in the world in Japan.
The schools of tea
The different ways of making tea are mentioned, namely boiled, whipped and brewed tea. Okakura also goes into the spread of the tea plant in China. He comes to the conclusion that the Chinese tea culture was "Taoism in a different guise".
Taoism and Zen teaching
It is also described how Taoism developed into Zen teaching in Japan . Okakura also mentions the great cultural differences between northern China, which is shaped by Confucianism and southern China, which is shaped by Taoism.
The tea room
The tea house is described as a building that impresses with its simplicity. Okakura sees the establishment of the tea house as an achievement by the tea master Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591). The heart of the tea room is the tokonoma .
Valuation of art
The Taoist parable is told of the discovery of the harp . This emerged from a tree and initially only made very melodious sounds. Only when the player Peh-Ya began to caress this instrument did it reward him with a melodious sound. This parable also applies to Japanese culture.
Flowers
Okakura thinks that the custom of admiring flowers distinguishes humans from animals. In Japanese culture this has been refined to ikebana .
Tea master
The role of the tea master is discussed and the example of Sen no Rikyū is mentioned in particular.
criticism
“'The Book of Tea' is the finest drawn of [Okakura's] writings. There is an interpretation here that lets us see the essence of genuine Japaneseism, the Japanese soul, in full purity. "
literature
- Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea . Transferred from Marguerite and Ulrich Steindorff, Insel-Bücherei No. 274 of Insel-Verlag Leipzig, 1919.
- Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea . Transferred and with an afterword by Horst Hammitzsch. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-458-32112-8 .
- Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea . Translated from the English by Tom Amarque. Hamburg: Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft, 2020, ISBN 978-3-86820-559-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1979 ISBN 3-458-32112-8 , p. 37
- ↑ Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea. Frankfurt am Main: Insel 1979 ISBN 3-458-32112-8 , p. 112