Description

1906 Second Edition of The Book Of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo Including Some Of The Earliest English Writings On Zen Buddhism

Kakuzo, Okakura. The Book of Tea. Duffield and Company. New York. Second Edition. July 1906.

Second edition of the classic The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo published two months after the first edition in 1906.

Written in English in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war, Kazuo uses “teaism” to argue that Japan was called “barbarous while she indulged in the gentle arts of peace” and despite Western powers only recognizing it’s status after its military successes, it has a rich culture and philosophy worth sharing with the world.

In his presentation of Japanese tea ceremony and its relationship to Buddhism, Kakuzo provided some of the earliest writings about Zen in the English language.

160pp. Green cloth boards with gilt letter to front and spine. Wear to corners and spine ends with losses. Corners bumped. Edgewear with minor soiling front board. Wear to spine with darkening. Text block and pages toned. Ownership inscription first free endpaper with quote from text. Pages toned but clean. Good.

If you liked this book, you might also enjoy this copy of the first English edition of T’ai-Shang Kan-Ying P’ien, one of the earliest works from D.T. Suzuki. You might also like these original shipboard newspapers from WWII with coverage of Japanese Balloon Bombs, Operation Magic Carpet, and the Yokohama War Crimes Trials.