The Book of Tea was written by Kakuzo Okakura in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906 and has since been republished many times.
In the book Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism and how tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture thought and life. Kazuko addressed The Book of Tea to a Western audience and wrote it in English not Japanese. The fact that it was originally written in English instead of being translated makes this a great English Tea classics. He had been taught at a young age to speak English and was proficient at communicating his thoughts to the Western mind. In his book he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism but also the secular aspects of tea and Japanese life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyu and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
When tea is more than a drink and the tea ceremony is understood and practiced to foster harmony in humanity promote harmony with nature discipline the mind quiet the heart and attain the purity of enlightenment the art of tea becomes teaism. It can be used to describe tea ceremony as the interests in tea culture and studies and pursued over time with self-cultivation. Teaism is mostly a simplistic mode of aesthetics but there are subtle insights into ethics and even metaphysics. Teaism is related to teamind. A sense of focus and concentration while under the influence of great tasting tea. Teaist is a person who performs or enjoys the art of tea and teaism. In Chinese Japanese and Korean cultures they all have well developed teaism.
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