Asymmetry and emptiness: lessons from the tearoom

Lessons are everywhere — even in something as seemingly unrelated to our lives as the traditional Japanese tearoom — we just need to stretch our imaginations a bit. A few principles from the Japanese tearoom or Sukiya are described simply and beautifully in the famous The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo (my copy), a small book first published over 100 years ago. The Japanese conception of Sukiya, according to Okakura, may signify an Abode of Fancy, an Abode of Vacancy, and the Abode of the...