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Okakura Kakuzo Biography

Okakura Kakuzō (岡倉覚三, February 14, 1862 – September 2, 1913) (also known as 岡倉天心 Okakura Tenshin) was a Japanese scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea.

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Okakura Kakuzo Quotes

Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilization were to be based on the gruesome glory of war.

Based, Civilization, Fain, Gruesome, Mindfulness, War

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism. . . for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe.

Aestheticism, Hygiene, Men, Nature, Philosophy, Simplicity

Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life.

Art, Drinking, Idealization, Life, Religion

Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.

Beautiful, Cult, Order, Sordid, Tea, Teaism

Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author observes, can at its best be only the reverse side of a brocade- all the threads are there, but not the subtlety of colour or design.

Author, Design, Side, Sides, Thread, Translation

A garden is a friend you can visit any time.

Friend, Garden, Garden Love, Gardening, Visit

We take refuge in pride, because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves.

Afraid, Pride, Refuge, Telling The Truth, Truth

In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.

Constant, Flower, Friends, Garden, Joy, Sadness

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.

Appreciation, Apt, Life, Littleness, Overlook, Running

In the worship of Bacchus, we have sacrificed too freely. . . . Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar? In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius.

Ivory, Queens, Reticence, Revel, Stream, Sweet

In Japan, I took part in a tea ceremony. You go into a small room, tea is served, and that's it really, except that everything is done with so much ritual and ceremony that a banal daily event is transformed into a moment of communion with the universe.

Everything, Japan, Perfection, Small Rooms, Took, Transformed

Tea. . . is a religion of the art of life.

Art, Cups Of Tea, Life, Religion, Tea

Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.

Beautiful, Bubbling, Dream, Heard, Let, Tea

The outsider may indeed wonder at this seeming much ado about nothing. What a tempest in a tea-cup! he will say. But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.

Ado, Enjoyment, Infinity, May, Tea, Wonder

The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings.

Change, Constant, Inspirational, Life, Readjustment

A man without tea in him is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.

Beauty, Incapable, Men, Tea, Truth, Understanding

It is not the accumulation of extraneous knowledge, but the realization of the self within, that constitutes true progress.

Knowledge, Progress, Realization, Self, True

True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally complete the incomplete.

Beauty, Complete, Incomplete, Inner Beauty, Mentally, True Beauty

Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it.

Everywhere, Ifs, Perfection, Recognise

Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities. We have good and bad teas, as we have good and bad paintings - generally the latter.

Art, Hands, Master, Needs, Tea

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