Vaishali’s review of The Book of Tea > Likes and Comments

Hi Vaishali,

From the comments I have seen, it appears that many people thought the book would be specifically about tea just based off of the title. I think that the title was chosen intentionally in order to reach its target audience, Westerners. With the jabs at Westerners, especially in a couple of the quotes you picked out from the book, it seems Okakura wanted Westerners to read his book and hear his disdain.

Though it wasn’t a result of the title, I felt distrust towards Okakura just as you did. This book seems, at first, to be a loving dedication to culture and history, but the jabs at Westerners seem childish. A better approach, in my opinion, would have been to focus on educating the West rather than take jabs. But again, just as with the title, I wonder if this was intentional. Possibly an effort to effectively make Western readers re-evaluate their thought process.

Beautifully stated, Carly. A rather surprising tone from such a well-traveled and accomplished scholar (cofounded the Tokyo School of Fine Arts ! ) Perhaps his words were also chosen to induce sales, since it’s a commercial book rather than an academic paper.

Cheers!

Vaishali,
I fully agree with your review I had expected to learn more about tea itself when I picked up this book but still enjoyed most of the information I had learned. I felt Okakura kept getting sidetracked in his need to… Discredit or ridicule the way westerns think or act to the point that the book became difficult if not boring to read. I truly think ended up getting more enjoyment finishing the book then in the actual act of reading it.

I agree Amanda ! I remember testing myself to see how fast I could get through those last chapters :) But yes, to be fair, Okakura at times also revealed tremendous emotional depth, and I wanted to cherish those moments too ... thus the quotes. Cheers !