The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.59

The Roji; Break Connection with

the Outside World

「Again the Roji, the garden path which leads from the machiai to the Tea-room, signified the first stage of meditation,--the passage into self-illumination.

The Roji was intended to break connection with the outside world, and to produce a fresh sensation conductive to the full enjoyment of aesthetisism to the tea-room itself.

One who has trodden this garden path can not fail to remember how his spirit, as he walked in the twilignt of evergreens over the regular irregularities of the stepping stones, beneath which lay dried pine needles, and passed beside the moss-covered granite lanterns, became uplifted above ordinary thoughts.」(From the Book of Tea-The Tea-Room, p.60, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

The Roji is very important to the world of tea drinkig.

As mentioned by Okakura, The Roji is the pass-way to the tea world to produce a fresh sensation conductive to the full aesthetism to the tea-room.

You will appreciate the Roji is also the way to the spiritual world, eapecilly to the world of The Zennism and/or The Taoism.

Click Please！！

Picture: Ash-Glazed Combed Pattern Rectangular by Keitoku Kato
Image Designer: Izumi Mori