The Philosophy of Tea
The Philosophy of Tea

Author: Tony Gebely

Publisher: British Library Philosophy of

Published: 2020-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780712352598

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How did drinking the infusions of a unique plant from China become a vital part of everyday life? This gift book presents an entertaining and illuminating introduction to the history and culture of tea, from its origins in the Far East to the flavors and properties of different varieties, and the rituals of tea preparation and drinking around the world. This simple hot beverage is suffused with artistic and religious overtones. The Chinese Ch'a Ching gave very precise guidelines to the preparation and sipping of tea, and the Japanese tea ceremony elevated it to an art form. Following its introduction to the royal court in the 17th century, the British created their own traditions, from the elaborate etiquette of afternoon tea to the humble pot of tea at the heart of family life, and the modern appreciation for specialty infusions.

The Book of Tea
The Book of Tea

Author: Kakuzo Okakura

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 1425000533

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The Book of Tea is a brief but classic essay on tea drinking, its history, restorative powers, and rich connection to Japanese culture. Okakura felt that "Teaism" was at the very center of Japanese life and helped shape everything from art, aesthetics, and an appreciation for the ephemeral to architecture, design, gardens, and painting. In tea could be found one source of what Okakura felt was Japan's and, by extension, Asia's unique power to influence the world. Containing both a history of tea in Japan and lucid, wide-ranging comments on the schools of tea, Zen, Taoism, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony and its tea-masters, this book is deservedly a timeless classic and will be of interest to anyone interested in the Japanese arts and ways. Book jacket.

A Little Tea Book
A Little Tea Book

Author: Sebastian Beckwith

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1632869047

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From tea guru Sebastian Beckwith and New York Times bestsellers Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton comes the essential guide to exploring and enjoying the vast world of tea. Tea, the most popular beverage in the world after water, has brought nations to war, defined cultures, bankrupted coffers, and toppled kings. And yet in many ways this fragrantly comforting and storied brew remains elusive, even to its devotees. As down-to-earth yet stylishly refined as the drink itself, A Little Tea Book submerges readers into tea, exploring its varieties, subtleties, and pleasures right down to the process of selecting and brewing the perfect cup. From orange pekoe to pu-erh, tea expert Sebastian Beckwith provides surprising tips, fun facts, and flavorful recipes to launch dabblers and connoisseurs alike on a journey of taste and appreciation. Along with writer and fellow tea-enthusiast Caroline Paul, Beckwith walks us through the cultural and political history of the elixir that has touched every corner of the world. Featuring featuring charming, colorful charts, graphs, and illustrations by bestselling illustrator Wendy MacNaughton and Beckwith's sumptuous photographs, A Little Tea Book is a friendly, handsome, and illuminating primer with a dash of sass and sophistication. Cheers!

Tea of the Sages
Tea of the Sages

Author: Patricia J. Graham

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1999-03-01

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0824820878

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The Japanese tea ceremony is generally identified with chanoyu and its bowls of whipped, powdered green tea served in surroundings influenced by the tenets of Zen Buddhism. Tea of the Sages is the first English language study of the alternate tea tradition of sencha. At sencha tea gatherings, steeped green leaf tea is prepared in an atmosphere indebted to the humanistic values of the Chinese sages and the materialistic culture of elite Chinese society during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Although sencha once surpassed chanoyu in popularity, it is now overshadowed by chanoyu, despite the existence of more than a hundred sencha schools throughout Japan. This exceptionally well-illustrated volume explores sencha's philosophy and arts from the seventeenth century to the present. Introduced by Chinese merchants and scholar-monks, sencha first gained favor in Japan among devotees of the Chinese literati. By the early nineteenth century, it had become popular with a wide spectrum of urban and rural residents. Some took up sencha as a subversive activity in opposition to the mandated protocol of chanoyu. Others enjoyed sencha because of its connections with elite Chinese culture, knowledge of which indicated intellectual and cultural refinement. Still others relished it simply as a fine tasting beverage. Sencha inspired painters and poets and fostered major advances within craft industries from ceramics to metalwork and basketry. Sencha aficionados, many of whom became serious connoisseurs of Chinese art and antiquities, hosted some of the earliest public art exhibitions. Tea of the Sages opens with a chronological overview of tea in China and its transmission to Japan before situating sencha within the rich milieu of Chinese material culture available in early modern Japan. Subsequent chapters outline the multifaceted history of the formalization of the sencha tea ceremony, drawing upon sources such as treatises and less formal writings as well as analysis of tea gathering records, utensils and their prescribed arrangements, paintings, prints, and sencha architecture.

Learning by brewing
Learning by brewing

Author: Jens Dennig

Publisher: JENS DENNIG

Published:

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13:

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To tea, or not to tea? That is no question! A tea collector and addict spills the leaves. The author is a vegetarian, non-smoker and teetotaler - but should one not have at least one vice? Brutally honest and in a comprehensive way, he reveals his experience with his addiction to finding increasingly better teas for the daily dose and the constantly growing collection. But that is not all, he also freely discloses how he treats the most tender leaves and buds with boiling water, some of which is even bubbling. In addition to providing personal experiences, the book also serves as a thorough guide and reference book, covering tea varieties and cultivars as well as the topics of purchasing, storing, choosing the right water, the various ways of brewing and the fitting accessories. Furthermore, more than 200 different teas are presented, both world-renowned standards as well as some personal favorites and curiosities. A wealth of photos illustrate the text.

Empire of Tea
Empire of Tea

Author: Markman Ellis

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2015-06-15

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1780234643

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Although tea had been known and consumed in China and Japan for centuries, it was only in the seventeenth century that Londoners first began drinking it. Over the next two hundred years, its stimulating properties seduced all of British society, as tea found its way into cottages and castles alike. One of the first truly global commodities and now the world’s most popular drink, tea has also, today, come to epitomize British culture and identity. This impressively detailed book offers a rich cultural history of tea, from its ancient origins in China to its spread around the world. The authors recount tea’s arrival in London and follow its increasing salability and import via the East India Company throughout the eighteenth century, inaugurating the first regular exchange—both commercial and cultural—between China and Britain. They look at European scientists’ struggles to understand tea’s history and medicinal properties, and they recount the ways its delicate flavor and exotic preparation have enchanted poets and artists. Exploring everything from its everyday use in social settings to the political and economic controversies it has stirred—such as the Boston Tea Party and the First Opium War—they offer a multilayered look at what was ultimately an imperial industry, a collusion—and often clash—between the world’s greatest powers over control of a simple beverage that has become an enduring pastime.

Making Tea, Making Japan
Making Tea, Making Japan

Author: Kristin Surak

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2012-11-28

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0804784795

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The tea ceremony persists as one of the most evocative symbols of Japan. Originally a pastime of elite warriors in premodern society, it was later recast as an emblem of the modern Japanese state, only to be transformed again into its current incarnation, largely the hobby of middle-class housewives. How does the cultural practice of a few come to represent a nation as a whole? Although few non-Japanese scholars have peered behind the walls of a tea room, sociologist Kristin Surak came to know the inner workings of the tea world over the course of ten years of tea training. Here she offers the first comprehensive analysis of the practice that includes new material on its historical changes, a detailed excavation of its institutional organization, and a careful examination of what she terms "nation-work"—the labor that connects the national meanings of a cultural practice and the actual experience and enactment of it. She concludes by placing tea ceremony in comparative perspective, drawing on other expressions of nation-work, such as gymnastics and music, in Europe and Asia. Taking readers on a rare journey into the elusive world of tea ceremony, Surak offers an insightful account of the fundamental processes of modernity—the work of making nations.

Cha-No-Yu
Cha-No-Yu

Author: A. L. Sadler

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-07-26

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1462901913

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This classic of Japanese cultural studies explains the famous Japanese tea ceremony or cha-no-yu with great scholarship and clarity. In 1933, when A. L. Sadler's imposing book on the Japanese tea ceremony first appeared, there was no other work on the subject in English that even remotely approached it in comprehensiveness or detail. Having attained something of the stature of a classic among studies of Japanese esthetics, it has remained one of the most sought-after of books in this field. It is therefore both a pleasure and a privilege to make it available once again in a complete and unabridged digital version The tea culture book is abundantly illustrated with drawings of tea ceremony furniture and utensils, tearoom architecture and garden design, floor and ground plans, and numerous other features of the cha-no-yu. A number of photographic plates picture famous tea bowls, teahouses, and gardens.