Okakura Kakuzo’s Book of Tea: chapter “The Cup of Humanity”
“The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer , painting -our very literature- all have been subject to its influence.”
The section above speaks to the individualized culture in Japan regarding Teaism. In my free-write, I have analyzed it to mean that by completely isolating itself, Japan was able to develop a culture that has little impression from other countries and their cultures, making their approach to tea unique to their society. This not only means that their culture is untouched by others, but outsiders, those who grew up without experiencing Japan thoroughly, will never truly be able to be one with Japanese culture. They always will be on the outside looking in, unable to completely grasp the individuality and importance of tea in Japan.
The idea that tea developed uniquely in Japan allows its influence to extend further to other areas of their culture. After sleeping on my free-write, I realized the significance of the second sentence. It is not there to reaffirm what the first sentence describes. While the first sentence refers to the lone development of Teaism, the second refers to how because of Japanese Teaism’s ability to grow unimprinted on, its presence became apparent in all other parts of Japanese culture. Simply, their specific tea culture influenced other areas of their culture. One could even presume that tea itself shaped all aspects of Japanese culture.
