Plutschow, Herbert E.

Rediscovering Rikyu and the Japanese Tea Ceremony

Global Oriental Ltd Folkestone. 2003 Black and white illustrations, 226pp, index, bibliography, dustjacket. The first comprehensive book-length study of the celebrated Japanese tea master Rikyu (1522 -1591), considered the father of the Tea Ceremony ("cha-no-yu"), that fully contextualizes tea in politics, aesthetics, ritual and art. A key focus of the book is the author's research into why Rikyu's tragic suicide was a necessary outcome of the emerging conflict between ritual, art and politics. The study also provides remarkable insights into a 16th century Japanese sense of beauty commonly called wabi - a simple, often austere beauty displayed in tea to unite host and guests as equals. In addition, Rediscovering Rikyu provides new and interesting insight into what links Rikyu's wabi tea with Zen Buddhism and ultimately to ritual and the state.

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• ordernr.: IL102580

• bookseller: Asia Bookroom (AUSTRALIA)