The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.104

When the Flower Fades, the Master Tenderly Consigns It to the River or Carefully Buries It In the Ground

『When a tea-master has arranged a flower to his satisfaction he will place it on the tokonoma,the place of honour in a Japanese room.

Nothing else will be placed near it which interfere with its effect, not even a painting, unless there be some special aesthetic reason for the combination.

It rests there like an enthroned prince, and the guests or disciples on entering the room will salute it with a profound bow before making their addresses to the host.

Drawings from master-pieces are made and published for the edification of amateurs.

The amount of literatere on the subject is quite voluninous.

When the flower fades, the master tenderly consigns it to the river or carefully buries it in the ground.

Monuments even are sometimes erected ti their memory.』
（From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.100-101, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

At present days, I don't believe the most of the masters have such delicacies.

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Picture: Katashi Oyama Work
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.103

Present The Whole Beauty of Plant Life

『Why not destroy flowers if therby we can envolve new forms ennobling the world ideas?

We only ask them to join in our sacrifice to the beautiful.

We shall atone for the deed by consecrating ourselves to Purity and Simplicity.

Thus reasoned the tea-masters when they established the Cult of Flowers.

Anyone acquainted with the ways of our tea- and flower-masters must have noticed the religious venerarion with which they regard flowers.

They do not cull at random, but carefully select each branch or spray with an eye to the artstic composition they have in mind.

They would be ashemed should they chance to cut more than were absolutely necessary.

It may be remarked in this connection that they always associate the leaves, if there be any, with the flowers, for their object is to present the whole beauty of plant life.

In this respect, as in many others, their method differs from that pursued in Western countries.

Here we are apt to see only the flower stems, heads, as it were, without body, stuck
promiscuously into a vase. 』
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.98-100, Charles E. Tuttles Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

The critical differences of ideas against the attitude to Nature are clear through the Flower arrangements between Oriental and Western countries .

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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.102

Change Is The Only Eternal,-Why Not

As Welcome Death As Welcome as Life?

『　However, let us not too sentimental.

Let us be luxurius but more magnificent.

Said Laotose: "Heaven and rarth are pitiless."

Said Kobodaishi: "Flow, flow, flow, flow, the current of life is ever onward.

Die, die, die, die, death comes to all."

Destruction faces us wherever we turn.

Destruction below and above, destruction behind and before.

Change is the only Eternal,-Why not as welcome Death as Life?

They are but counterparts one of the other,-The Night and Day of Brahma.

Through the disintegration of the old, re-creation becomes possible.

We have worshipped Death, the relentless godness of mercy, under many different names.

It was the shadow of the All-devouring that the Gheburs greeted in the fire.

It is the icy purism of the sword-soul before which Shinto-Japan prostates herself even today.

The mystic fire consumes our weakness, the sacred sword cleaves the bondage of desire.

From our ashes springs the phoenix of ccelestial hope, out of the freedom comes a higher realism of manhood.』
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.98-99, Charles E. Tuttles Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

The acceptance of the philosophy of "Change is the only Eternal" is the most important fact of orietntal idea.

If you understand the idea, you will be able to find the oriental Eternity.

「From our ashes springs the phenix of celestial hope, out of the freedom comes a higher realisation of manhood.」

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Picture: Jikou by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.101

Why Take The Plants From Their Homes &

Ask Them To Bloom Mid Stange Surroundings?

『Yet even in the case of pot flowers we are inclined to suspect the selfishness of man.

Why take the plants from their homes and ask them to bloom mid strange surroundings?

Is it not like asking the birds to sing and mate cooped in cages?

Who knows but that the orchids feel stifled by the artificial heat in your conservatories and hopelessly long for a glimpse of their own Southern skies?


The ideals lover of flowers is he who visits them in their native haunts, like Taoyuenming, who sat before a broken bamboo fence in converse with the wild chrysanthemum, or Linwosing, losing himself amid mysterious fragrance as he wandered in the twilight among the plum-blossoms of the Western Lake.

"Tis said that Chowmushih slept in a boat so that his dreams might mingle with those of the lotus.

It was this same spirit which moved the Empress Komio, one of our most renowned Nara sovereigns, as she sang: "If I plunk three, my hand will defile thee, O Flower!
Standindg in the meadows as thou art, I offer tree to the Buddhas of the past, of the future." 』
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.97-98, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland,Vermont,Tokyo,Japan)


I agree to enjoy flowers at natural surcumstances and enviroments as they are.

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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.100

Great Precautions Were Taken For

the Preservation of Delicatate Blossoms

『Great precautions were taken for the preservation of delicate blossoms.

Emperor Huensung of the Tang dynasty, hung tiny golden bells on the branches in his garden to keep off the birds.

He it was who went off in the springtime with his court musicians to gladden the flowers with soft music.

A quaint tablet, which tradition ascribes to Yoshitsune, the hero of our Arthurian legends, is still extant in one of the Japanese monasteries.

It is a notice put up for the protection of a certain wonderful plum-tree, and appeals to us with the grim humour of a warlike age.

After referring to the beauty of the blossoms, the inscription says: "Whoever cuts a single branch of this tree shall forfeit a finger therefor."

Would that such laws could be enforced nowadays against those who wantonly destroy flowers and mutilate objects of art!』
(From the Book of Tea,Flowers, pp.96-97, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

Now a days, the concepts and feelings for the flowers are completely different.

It is certain that we tend to forget to enjoy about the beauty of nature and need to respect the dignity of nature.

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Picture: With Every Good by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.99

In the East the Art of Floriculture is

a Very Ancient One,

And the Loves of a Poet And His Favourite Plant Have Often Been Recorded in Story

And Song

　『Much may be said in favour of him who cultivates plants.

The man of the pot is far more humane than he of the scissors.

We watch with delight his concern about water and sunshine, his freuds with parasites,　his horror of frosts, his anxietry when the buds come slowly, his raputure when the leaves atｔain their lustre.

In the East the art of floriculture is a very ancient one, and the loves of a poet and his favporite plant have often been recorded in story and song.

With the development of ceramics during the Tang and Sung dynasties we hear of wonderful receptacles made to hold plants, not pots, but jewelled palaces.

A special attendant was detailed to wait upon each flower and to wash its leaves with soft brushes made of rabbit hair.

It has been written that the peony shuld be bathed by a handsome maiden in full costume, that a winter-plum should be watered by a pale, slender monk.

In Japan, one of the most popular of the No-dances, the Hachinoki, composed during the Ashikaga peiod, is based upon the story of an impoverished knight, who, on a freezing night, in lack of fuel for a fire, cuts his cherished plants in order to entertain a wandering friar.

The friar is in reality no other than Hojo-Tokiyori, the Haroun-Al-Raschid of our tales, and the sacrifice is not without its reward.

This opera never fails to draw tears from a Tokio audience even toay.』
(From the Book of Tea, Flowers, pp.95-96, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.98

Have You Not Noticed That the Wild Flowers

Are Becoming Scarcer Every Year ?

『Why were the flowers born so beautiful and yet so hapless ?

Insects can sting, and even the meekerst of beasts will fight when brought to bay.

The bird whose plumage is sought to deck some bonnet can fly from its pursuer, the furred animal whose coast you covet for your own may hide at your approach.

Alas !

The only known flower known to have wings is the butterfly; all others stand helpless before the destroyer.

If they shriek in their death agony their cry never reaches our hardened ears.

We are ever brutal to those who love and serve us in silence, but the time may come when, for our cruelty, we shall be deserted by these best friends of ours.

Have you not noticed that the wild flowers are becoming scarcer every year ?

It may be that their wise men have told them to depart till man becomes more human.

Perhaps they have migrated to heaven. 』
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.94-95, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo)Japan)

It is quite surprising that the wild flowers are becoming scarcer every year at the Okakura's generation already !

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Picture: jikou by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.97

Nothing is More Pitiful Than to See a Faded Flowers Remorselessly Flung Upon a Dung Heap

『The wanton waste of flowers among Western communities is more appalling than the way they are treated by Eastern Flower-Masters.

The number of flowers cut daily to adorn the ballrooms and banquet-tables of Europe and America, to thrown away on the morrow, must be something enormous; if strung together they might garland a continent.

Beside this utter carelessness of life, the guilt of the Flower-Master becomes insignificant.

He, at least, respects the economy of nature, selects his victims with careful foresight, and after death does honour to their remains.

In the West the diplay of flowers seems to be part of a moment.

Whither do they all go, these flowers, when the revelery is over?

Nothing is more pitiful than to see a faded flower remorselessly flung upon a dung heap』
(Thr Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.93-94, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland,Vermont, Tokyo,Japan)


All flowers have their life.

It doesn't mean the amount of waste and not the matter of the display moment.

The life of flower blossoms are not long enough and they need to open for their descendants.

I think it's no difference between the West and Easter.

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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.96

Would You Not Have Preferred to Have Been Killed at Once When You Were First Captured?

「 Flowers, if you were in the land of the Mikado, you might some time meet a dread personage armed with scissors and a tiny saw.

He would call himself a Master of Flowers.

He would claim the rights of a doctor and you would instictively hate him, for you know a doctor always seeks to prolong the troubles of his victims.

He would cut, bend, and twist you into those impossible positions which he thinks it proper that you should assume.

He would contort your muscles and dislocate your bones like any osteopath.

He wold burn you with red-hot coals to stop your bleeding, and thrust wires into you to assist your circulation.

He would diret you with salt, vinegar, alum, and somethimes, vitriol.

Boiling water would be poured on your feet when you seemed ready to faint.

It would be his boast that he could keep life within you for two or more weeks longer than would have been possible without his treatment.

Would not have prefferred to have been killed at once when you were fist captured ?

What were the crimes you must have committed during your past incarnation to warrant such punishment as this ? 」
(From the Book of Tea , Flowers, pp.92-93, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

You must pay attention to the flowers as if they are your loves.

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Picture: Jugoya by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.95

Are You Aware of the Fearful Doom

That Awaits You?

「Tell me, gentle flowers, teardrops of the stars, standing in the garden, nodding your heads to the bees as they sing of the dews and the sunbeans, are you aware of the fearfull doom that awaits you?

Dream on, sway and frolic while you may in the gentle breezes of summer.

To-morrow a ruthless hand will close around your throats.

You will be wrenched, torn asunder limb by limb, and borne away from your quiet homes.

The wretch, she may be passing fair.

She may say how lovely you are while her fingers are still moist with ypur blood.

Tell me, will this be kindness?

It may be your fate to be imprisoned in the hair of one whom you know to be heartless or to be thrust into the buttonhole of one who would not dare to look you in the face were you a man.

It may even be your lot to be confined in some narrow vessel with only stagnant water to quench the maddening thirst that warns of ebbing life」
(From the Book of Tea, Flowers,p.92, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo, Japan)

We must be very sensitive for the tender loving natural flowers.

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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.94

What Atrocities Do We Not Perpetrate

in the Name of Culture and Refinement!

「Sad as it is, we cannot conceal the fact that in spite of our companionship with flowers we have not risen very far above the brute.

Scratch the sheepskin and the wolf within us will soon show his teeth.

It has been said that man at ten is an animal, at twenty a lunatic, at thity a failure, at fort a fraud, and at fifty a criminal.

Perhaps he becames a criminal because he has never creased to be an animal.

Nothing is real to us but hundger, nothing sacred except our own desires.

Shrine after shrine has crumbled before our eyes; but one altar foreever is preserved, that whereon we burn incense to the supreme idol, ーourselves.

Our god is great, and money is his Prophet!

We devastate nature in order to make sacrifice to him.

We boast that we have conquered Matter and forget that it is Matter that has enslaved us.

What atrocities do we not perpetrate in the name of culture and refinement!」
(From the Book of Tea - Flowers, p.91, Charles E.TUttぇCo., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)


What a poor human being at present!

However, yet, we should never give for the wonder of culture and refinement!

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Picture: Acrobat Monkey and His Master by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.93

In Joy or Sadness,

Flowers are Our Constant Friends

「In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.

We eat, drink, sing, dance, and flirt with them.

We wed and christen with flowers.

We dare not die without them.

We have worshipped with the lily, we have meditated with the lotus, we have charged in battle array with the rose and the chrysanthemum.

We have even attempted to speak in the langurage of flowers.

How could we live without them?

It frightens one to conceive of a world bereft of their presence.

What solace do they not bring to the bedside of the sick, what a light of bliss to the darkness of weary spirits?

Their serene tenderness restores to us our warning confidence in the universe even as the intent gaze of a beautiful child recalls our lost hopes.

When we are laid low in the dust it is they it is they who linger in sorrow over our graves. 」
(From the Book of Tea; Flowers, p.90-91, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

Flowers are everywhere in our daily life, not only for personal affairs but also for the socials.

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Picture: Russianblue by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.92

The Realm of Art;

The Subtle Use of The Useless

「In the trembling grey of a spring dawn, when the birds were whispering in mysterious cardence among the trees, have you not felt that they were talking to their mates about the flowers?

Surely with the mankind the appreciation of flowers must have been coeval with the poetry of love.

Where better than in a flower, sweet in its unconsciousness, fragrant because of its silence, can we image the unfolding of a virgin soul?

The primeval man in offering the first garland to his maiden therby transcended the brute.

He became human in thus rising above the crude necessities of nature.

He entered the realm of art when he perceived the subtle use of the useless.」
(From the Book of Tea-Flowers, pp.89-90, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

Now, let's learn about the role of flowers in the Way of Tea.

Okakura Tenshin talks the interesting story about Japanese Flower arrangements.

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Picture: Amakusa by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.91

We Are Destroying Art

in Destroying the Beautiful in Life

「The claims of contemporary art cannot be ignored in any vital scheme of life.

The art of today is that which really belongs to us: it is our own reflection.

In condemning it we but our condemn ourselves.

We say that the present age possesses no art:ーwho is responsible for this?

It is indeed a shame that despite all our rhapsodies about the ancients we pay so

little attention to our own possibilities.

Struggling artists, weary souls lingering in the shadow of cold disdain!

In our self-centred century, what inspiration do we offer them?

The past may well look with pity at the poverty of our civilisation; the future

will laugh at the barrenness of our art.

We are destroying art in destroying the beautiful in life.

Would that some great wizard might from the stem of society shape a mighty harp

whose strings would respond to the touch of genius.」(From the Book of Tea, Art Appreciation, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, TOkyo, Japan, p.87)

The part of Art Appreciation is very difficult to me.

In addition, the Art Appreciation in relation to the Cup of Humanity is much more difficult.

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Picture: Ｍt.Fuji by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.90

A Single Masterpiece Can Teach Us

More Than Any Number of Mediocre Products

「The nineteenth century, pregnant with the theory of evolution, has moreover created in us the habit of losing sight of the individual in the species.

A collector is anxious to acquire specimens to illustrate a period or a school and forgets that a single masterpiece can teach us more than any number of the mediocre products of a given period or school.

We classify too much and enjoy too little.

The sacrifice of the aesthetic to the so-called scientific method of exhibition has been the bane of many museums. 」(From the Book of Tea, pp.86-87, Charles E. tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan)

I think the facts are very important to understand the aesthetic masterpiece .

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Picture: Kayokukan by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.89

Mistake of Confusing Art with Archaeology

「Another common mistake is that of confusing art with archaeology.

The veneration born of antiquity is one of the best traits in the human character, and fain would we have it cultivated to a greater extent.

The old masters are rightly to be honoured for opening the path to future enlightment.

The mere fact that have passed unscathed through centuries of criticism and come down to us still covered with glory commands our respect.

But we should be foolish indeed if we valued their achievement simply on the score of age.

Yet we allow our historical sympathy to override our aesthetic discrimination.

We offers flowers of approbation when the artist is laid in his grave.」
(From the Book of Tea, pp.85-86,Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo, Japan)

The facts of confusing art with archaeolog might be more common at the present day.

We must sincerely listen to what he mentioned.

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Picture: Kayokukan by Katashi Oyama
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The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.88

The Majorities Want The Costly,

Not The Refined; The Fashionable,

Not The Beautiful

「It is much to be regretted that so much of the apparent enthusiasm for art at the present day has no foundation in real feeling.

In this democratic age of ours men clamour for what is popularly considered the best, regardless of their feelings.

They want the costly, not the refined; the fashionable, not the beautiful.

To the masses, contemplation of illstrated periodicals, the worthy product of their own industrialism, would give more digestible food for artistic enjoyment than the early Italians or the Ashikaga masters, whom they prettend to admire.

The name of the arist is more important to them than the quality of the work.

As a Chinese critic complained many centuries ago, "People criticise a picture by their ear."

It is this lack of genuine appreciation that is responsible for the pseudo-classic horrors that to-day greet us whereever we turn.」
(From The Book of Tea, p.85, Charles E. Tuttle Co, Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo, Japan)

It is surprising that from his generation, the evaluation of art is already the usages of popularity.

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Picture: With Every Good by Katashi Oyama
Image Designer: Izumi Mori