'Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle.' In this charming book from 1906, Okakura explores Zen, Taoism, Tea Masters and the significance of the Japanese tea ceremony. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

An unabridged, unaltered edition with modern typeface: The Cup of Humanity - The Schools of Tea - Taoism and Zennism - The Tea-Room - Art Appreciation - Flowers - Tea-Masters

Minor classic of the Orient. Perhaps the most entertaining, most charming explanation and interpretation of traditional Japanese culture in terms of the tea ceremony. Introduction, notes by E. F. Bleiler. "Provocative and entertaining, this edition is particularly pleasing in format."-Guide to Asia Paperbacks.

Zen and the art of tea-the classic book about the Japanese tea ceremony that is as much a guide to life.
Ritualized, romantic, and historically rich, the tea ceremony is the creation of something beautiful out of the everyday. Originally written in English more than a hundred years ago to be read aloud at Isabella Stewart Gardner's famous salon, "The Book of Tea" presents the meeting of East and West in a teacup. It explores Asian culture through the history and aestheticism-or "teaism"-of the tea ceremony and also suggests a deep connection between beauty and war, and between flowers and social mores. In its formality, attention to detail, and celebration of beauty and harmony, the tea ceremony encapsulates the Japanese view of life-in fact, the art of life.

First published in 1883 and written by the foremost authority of the era, this extremely influential book offers a brief but concise introduction to Asian art. One of its major themes, the connections between spirituality and the evolution of Asian art, provided the earliest lucid English-language account of Zen Buddhism and its relation to the arts.