The Book of Tea should be named Short history of the Asian thought.
It’s a splendid display of the picturesque narrative skills of the Japanese writers represented by Okakura Kakuzō. He gives us a long, fascinating essay about teism, the art of tea, which combines elements of morals, aesthetics, philosophy and much more. A history where spirituality and mundane mix : like Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism with the aristocracy of quality tea and the multi-layered experience present in a traditional tea-house . We find out that a person with too little tea within cannot feel the tragicomedy of his personal drama while a person with too much tea within throws itself loudly in the wave of the passion and reaches despair. Calm and peace lie within moderation.
Teism is the art of hiding the beautiful; the art of suggesting the beautiful, so you, as the viewer, can complete the space with your own thoughts, understandings, opinions. Good and bad are relative notions because the world is in continuous change and we together with it.
The book of tea is a book with deep moral teachings, a splendid example of Japanese culture wrote so you, a European can relate to it, understand it and feel how simple things can be precious and essential, because the ones that cannot feel in them the smallness of the big things will not acknowledge the greatness of small things in the others around them.
Enjoy!
Terningkast: 5
Text: Erika Ramona Erdōs – erika.erdos@unikumnett.no
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