Daryl Zamora

Kakuzo Okakura’s turn-of-the-twentieth-century classic is a fascinating ode to one of Japan’s most hallowed traditions: tea.

Where it came from; how it’s cultivated, harvested, and stored; how it found its way to the West and how it captivated it; how it’s prepared for the famed tea ceremony, the height of elevating the mundane to utmost refinement; and the minutely beautiful details surrounding the tea house and the mindful manners of the people using it.

He also has a few wry comments on how Westerners perceive the East, as well as a poetic defense of flowers against their overuse and abuse in grandiose events.

It definitely deserves its place among Japan’s literary masterpieces.

Of Okakura’s many thought-provoking ideas, one concept strikes me most, which can be applied to design: every part of the tea-room is designed to fulfill a purpose. The machiai is the waiting area or anteroom where the tea host’s guests “purify” themselves from worldly concerns, readying themselves for the beauty of the tea ceremony. The roji is the small garden path that separates the tearoom from the machiai; it is “intended to break connection with the outside world, and to produce a fresh sensation conducive to the full enjoyment of aestheticism of the tea-room itself.” A short pilgrimage to a place of bliss. Then as guests enter the tearoom proper, they pass through a small door, crouching, encouraging humility, until, at last, they enter the sanctuary of the tea master.

I think that when creating anything — a publication, an event, a program or any activity — all the little things of the experience have to be considered and must serve its essential purpose. A book, for example, must consider the reader’s experience of opening the book and leafing through its pages; the ease of reading the material with a legible font size and typography; the place and time of day that the reader would peruse the book; the type of storage and display that the book requires after it’s been read — all for the good of the end user.

It is this kind of refinement and attention that this overly distracted world so badly needs.

Image created with Canva Magic Media