This week, Saffron reviews The book of tea by Okakura Kakuzo. Find out more about our What we are reading series here.

“I’m re-reading this book I read about 10 years ago and loved. It was written by a Japanese author in 1906 at a time when East and West were starting to get to know each other better. It offers some detail and reflections on the history and almost-religion of tea, but is more about traditional Japanese and Chinese values and ways of reasoning. It explores some concepts from Taoism and Zennism, and describes why and how art has been appreciated to an extraordinary degree. I see there is also a chapter on flowers coming up which I had forgotten about but I’m looking forward to! It is available as an ebook via LibrarySearch, but read a print version (the older the better) or you’d lose half the magic.”