The Book of Tea: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Book of Tea, credited to Okakura Kakuzo, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

Librivox recording of The Book of Tea, by Okakura Kakuzo. The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many times. - In the book, Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism and how Tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is noted to be accessibile to Western audiences because though Kakuzo was born and raised Japanese, he was trained from a young age to speak English; and would speak it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts in the Western Mind. In his book he elucidates such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of Tea and Japanese life. The book emphasises how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture, and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyu and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Book of Tea
• Author credits: Okakura Kakuzo
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 6
• Listed recording duration: 2:05:00

Catalogue topics

• Japan
• Asia
• Tea Ceremony
• Samurai
• culture

Track guide

1. Chapter 1: The Cup of Humanity, Chapter 2: The Schools of Tea — 36:40
2. Chapter 3: Taoism and Zennism — 20:50
3. Chapter 4: The Tea-Room — 22:52
4. Chapter 5: Art Appreciation — 15:16
5. Chapter 6: Flowers — 20:35
6. Chapter 7: Tea-Masters — 8:50

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.