Kakuzō Okakura’s Followers (226)

Kakuzō Okakura

Born

in Yokohama, Japan

February 14, 1863

Died

September 02, 1913

Genre

Nonfiction, History

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Okakura Kakuzō (岡倉覚三), also known as Okakura Tenshin (岡倉天心), was a Japanese scholar who contributed the development of arts in Japan. Outside Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea .

Born in Yokohama to parents originally from Fukui, Okakura learned English while attending a school operated by Christian missionary, Dr. Curtis Hepburn. At 15, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, where he first met and studied under Harvard-educated professor Ernest Fenollosa. In 1889, Okakura co-founded the periodical Kokka. A year later he was one of the principal founders of the first Japanese fine-arts academy, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (東京美術学校 Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō), and a year later became its head, although he was Okakura Kakuzō (岡倉覚三), also known as Okakura Tenshin (岡倉天心), was a Japanese scholar who contributed the development of arts in Japan. Outside Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea .

Born in Yokohama to parents originally from Fukui, Okakura learned English while attending a school operated by Christian missionary, Dr. Curtis Hepburn. At 15, he entered Tokyo Imperial University, where he first met and studied under Harvard-educated professor Ernest Fenollosa. In 1889, Okakura co-founded the periodical Kokka. A year later he was one of the principal founders of the first Japanese fine-arts academy, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (東京美術学校 Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō), and a year later became its head, although he was later ousted from the school in an administrative struggle. Later, he also founded the Japan Art Institute with Hashimoto Gahō and Yokoyama Taikan. He was invited by William Sturgis Bigelow to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1904 and became the first head of the Asian art division in 1910.

Okakura was a high-profile urbanite who had an international sense of self. In the Meiji period he was the first dean of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (later merged with the Tokyo Music School to form the current Tokyo University of the Arts). He wrote all of his main works in English. Okakura researched Japan's traditional art and traveled to Europe, the United States, China and India. He emphasised the importance to the modern world of Asian culture, attempting to bring its influence to realms of art and literature that, in his day, were largely dominated by Western culture.

His book, The Ideals of the East (1904), published on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, is famous for its opening line, "Asia is one." He argued that Asia is "one" in its humiliation, of falling behind in achieving modernization, and thus being colonized by the Western powers. This was an early expression of Pan-Asianism. Later Okakura felt compelled to protest against a Japan that tried to catch up with the Western powers, but by sacrificing other Asian countries in the Russo-Japanese War.

In Japan, Okakura, along with Fenollosa, is credited with "saving" Nihonga, or painting done with traditional Japanese technique, as it was threatened with replacement by Western-style painting, or "Yōga", whose chief advocate was artist Kuroda Seiki. In fact this role, most assiduously pressed after Okakura's death by his followers, is not taken seriously by art scholars today, nor is the idea that oil painting posed any serious "threat" to traditional Japanese painting. Yet Okakura was certainly instrumental in modernizing Japanese aesthetics, having recognized the need to preserve Japan's cultural heritage, and thus was one of the major reformers during Japan's period of modernization beginning with the Meiji Restoration.

Outside of Japan, Okakura had an impact on a number of important figures, directly or indirectly, who include philosopher Martin Heidegger, poet Ezra Pound, and especially poet Rabindranath Tagore and heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner, who were close personal friends of his. ...more

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Kakuzō Okakura’s books

Average rating: 3.85 · 15,724 ratings · 1,817 reviews · 83 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Book of Tea 3.85 avg rating — 15,528 ratings — published 1906 — 1399 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ideals of the East: The Spirit of Japanese Art by Kakuzō Okakura, Sister Nivedita (Introduction) 3.47 avg rating — 113 ratings — published 1903 — 126 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Awakening of Japan 3.85 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1905 — 68 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cup Of Humanity: Okakura Kakuzo Quotes About Tea And Life by Kakuzō Okakura, Melanie Paquette Widmann (Goodreads Author) 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Quotes About Tea and Life From Okakura Kakuzo [Color Illustrations and Photographs] by Kakuzō Okakura, Melanie Paquette (Editor) 4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Meditations on Tea: A Coloring Book to Soothe the Soul with Reflections from Okakura Kakuzo's The Book of Tea 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Tea 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ho-o-den (Phoenix hall) : an illustrated description of the buildings erected by the Japanese government at the World's Columbian exposition, Jackson Park, Chicago : by Okakura Kak [Leather Bound] liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'unto. Il messia venuto dall'India 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Tea with Foreward And Biographical Sketch By Elise Grilli by Kakuzō Okakura, NOT A BOOK (illustrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Kakuzō Okakura…

Quotes by Kakuzō Okakura (?)

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”
― Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea

tags: flowers

312 likes

“Tea ... is a religion of the art of life.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

tags: tea

166 likes

“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”
― Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea

tags: philosophy, tea, teaism

138 likes

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Polls

June 2020 Short Story/Novella Poll

The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells, Less than 56 pages, 1904

77 votes, 25.0%

The Book of Tea by Kakuzō Okakura, 86-133 pages, 1906

73 votes, 23.7%

To Build a Fire by Jack London, 32 pages +-, 1902

49 votes, 15.9%

And of Clay Are We Created Isabel Allende, 16 pages +-, 1984

41 votes, 13.3%

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, Less than 36, 1890

31 votes, 10.1%

Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau, 80 +-, 1947

22 votes, 7.1%

Michael Kohlhaas: A Tale from an Old Chronicle by Heinrich von Kleist, 104 pages, 1810

15 votes, 4.9%

308 total votes

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Kakuzō Okakura’s Followers (226)

Kakuzō Okakura

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Kakuzō Okakura’s books