Kakuzo Okakura’s The Book of Tea and the Contemporary American Literary Scene (Resume)

Abstract

　At the time of Okakura’s first residency in the United States (1904), he seems to have encountered a minor literary vogue of writing about luxury items such as tobacco or tea as keys to national cultural values. Arthur Gray’s The Little Tea Book (1903) appears to have provided a major impetus for Okakura to explain Japanese culture through the symbolism of Japanese “Teaism” in his Book of Tea (1906). This paper indicates Okakura’s likely “borrowings” as to vocabulary, certain facts, and the structure from Gray’s book. Okakura’s “too poetic” style for the purpose of the book could also be explained by an apparent influence of the poetic and sociable style of Gray’s work intended as a gift book.

　The Book of Tea was not as widely reviewed as Okakura’s two earlier, more “serious,” books, probably due to its seemingly lay approach and sociable style. Yet it has increased its popularity and importance in the States during the years while the two earlier books have almost entirely lost theirs. The most important discovery made by the early reviewers of The Book of Tea must be that the idea of art for art’s sake had existed in Japan centuries earlier than in the West.