The Book of Tea - Couverture souple

Okakura, Kakuzo

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1604596430 ISBN 13 : 9781604596434

Editeur : Wilder Publications, 2009

Synopsis

Book by Okakura Kakuzo

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

Okakura Kakuzo (1862–1913) was a Japanese scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside of Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea. Okakura was a high-profile urbanite who had an international sense of self. In the Meiji period he was the first dean of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music). He wrote all of his main works in English. Okakura researched Japan's traditional art and traveled to Europe, the United States, China and India. He gave the world an image of Japan as a member of the East, in the face of a massive onslaught of Western culture. His book, The Ideals of the East (1904), published on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, is famous for its opening line, "Asia is one." He argued that Asia is "one" in its humiliation, of falling behind in achieving modernization, and thus being colonized by the Western powers. This was an early expression of Pan-Asianism. Later Okakura felt compelled to protest against a Japan that tried to catch up with the Western powers, but by sacrificing other Asian countries in the Russo-Japanese War. In Japan, Okakura, along with Fenollosa, is credited with "saving" Nihonga, or painting done with traditional Japanese technique, as it was threatened with replacement by Western-style painting, or "Yoga", whose chief advocate was artist Kuroda Seiki. Beyond this, he was instrumental in modernizing Japanese aesthetics, having recognized the need to preserve Japan's cultural heritage, and thus was one of the major reformers during Japan's period of modernization beginning with the Meiji Restoration. Outside of Japan, Okakura had an impact on a number of important figures, directly or indirectly, who include philosopher Martin Heidegger, poet Ezra Pound, and especially poet Rabindranath Tagore and heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner, who were close personal friends of his.

Présentation de l'éditeur

"The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo shows how Tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is accessible to Western audiences because, though Kakuzo was born and raised Japanese, he was trained from a young age to speak English. In this book he explains tea in the context of Zen and Taoism as well as the secular aspects of Tea and Japanese life. This book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected Japanese art and architecture. A clear guide to living a simple and fulfilling life."

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Wilder Publications
• Date d'édition: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1604596430
• ISBN 13: 9781604596434
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 84