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  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141191843
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $26.99

The Book of Tea




First time in Penguin Classics for this Japanese work dedicated to the art of drinking tea - and much more - introduced by Christopher Benfey

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 practiced in New England was a distant cousin of the Japanese tea ceremony, and that East and West had thus "met in the tea-cup."

  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141191843
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $26.99

Other books in the series

The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
When You Are Old
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
Venus in Furs
Man and Superman
Military Dispatches
The Prelude

About the author

Kakuzo Okakura

Kakuzo Okakura (1863-1913) was a Japanese scholar and art critic who in the era of Meiji Restoration reform promoted a critical appreciation of traditional forms, customs and beliefs. Outside Japan, he is chiefly renowned for The Book of Tea: A Japanese Harmony of Art, Culture, and the Simple Life, published by Penguin Classics.