The Book of Tea

About Okakura KakuzOkakura Kakuzo

Gian Carlo Calza is a leading authority in Japanese art and aesthetics. He was a professor of Asian Art History at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and director of the International Hokusai Research Centre in Milan. His books and catalogues on Japan have been published in various languages. Among the most important of them are: L'incanto sottile del dramma no (1975 1983) Hokusai Paintings (1994) Tanaka Ikko (Phaidon 1997) Japan Style (2002 Phaidon 2006) Hokusai 1999 (Phaidon 2003) Ukiyo-e (Phaidon 2006) Hiroshige (2009); Poem of the Pillow and Other Stories (Phaidon 2010). Okakura Kakuz (1863-1913) was a Japanese art critic and scholar who had a great influence on our understanding of Japanese culture. Together with Ernest Fenollosa an American professor at Tokyo Imperial University he was instrumental in defending Japan's traditional art forms which during the Mejii period were put in peril by modernisation and the new political structure which severed Buddhist temples from state protection. After setting up a fine arts school based on tradition and travelling throughout Japan to study its art he frequently travelled to Asia and the United States. At the turn of the century he became curator of the Oriental Art department of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Several of his books were written directly in English: among them The Ideals of the East (1903) The Awakening of Japan (1904) and The Book of Tea (1906).