THE TEA CEREMONY; Foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer / Preface by Yasushi Inoue / Photography by Takeshi Nishikawa

Tokyo, New York and San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd, 1973. First Edition. Cloth. Very Fine/Very Fine / Slipcase: Near Fine. Takeshi Nishikawa. Quarto (11 3/8" x 9"), indigo-blue cloth with white lettering on spine and front cover, archival polyester-protected photographic dust jacket (unclipped) depicting a hand stirring tea in a kettle, Foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer, Preface by Yasushi Inoue, Photography by Takeshi Nishikawa who has prepared 84 beautiful glossy photosgraphs (color frontispiece tipped-in, plus many full-page color plates & several smaller B&W images), 2-page Plan of Tea Rooms, 214 pages. Tan cardboard slipcase with brown title. Beautifully illustrated and well written detailed overview of Japanese tea ceremony in SUPERB CONDITION. The cardboard slipcase has slightly bruised corners with two small pieces of Scotch tape on its back, and a bit of roughness where part of one tape pulled underlying paper.<br/><br/>Sen' Tanaka is now 93! Other tea masters joined him in writing and preparing this VERY FINE ILLUSTRATED BOOK.<br/><br/>The art of serving tea for Japanese (& others) is an art and a spiritual discipline. As an art, the tea ceremony is an occasion to appreciate the clean lines of the tea room's design, the feel of the bowl in the hand, the company of friends, and a simple moment of purity. As a discipline, it has roots in the twelfth century and intimate connections to architecture, landscape gardening, ceramics, painting, flower arrangement, and, of course, Zen Buddhism.