The Book of Tea

to established etiquette, the chief guest now asks permission to examine the tea-equipage. Rikiu places the various articles before them, with the kakemono. After all have expressed admiration of their beauty, Rikiu presents one of them to each of the assembled company as a souvenir. The bowl alone he keeps. “Never again shall this cup, polluted by the lips of misfortune, be used by man.” He speaks, and breaks the vessel into fragments.

The ceremony is over; the guests with difficulty restraining their tears, take their last farewell and leave the room. One only, the nearest and dearest, is requested to remain and witness the end. Rikiu then removes his tea-gown and carefully folds it upon the mat, thereby disclosing the immaculate white death robe which it had hitherto concealed. Tenderly he gazes on the shining blade of the fatal dagger, and in exquisite verse thus addresses it:

“Welcome to thee,
O sword of eternity!
Through Buddha
And through Dharuma alike
Thou hast cleft thy way.”

With a smile upon his face Rikiu passed forth into the unknown.

Endnotes

1. Paul Kransel, Dissertations, Berlin, 1902. ↩

2. Mercurius Politicus, 1638. ↩

3. The Chinese Elysium. ↩

4. We should like to call attention to Dr. Paul Carus’s admirable translation of the Tao Te Ching. The Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago, 1898. ↩

5. The precious jewels formed in the bodies of Buddhas after cremation. ↩

6. We refer to Ralph N. Cram’s Impressions of Japanese Architecture and the Allied Arts. The Baker & Taylor Co., New York, 1905. ↩

7. The Dragon Gorge of Honan. ↩

8. “Pingtse,” by Yuenchunlang. ↩

9. Sumadera, near Kobe. ↩

10. All celebrated Chinese poets and philosophers. ↩

Colophon

The Book of Tea
was published in 1906 by
Okakura Kakuzō.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
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Tassos Natsakis,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1997 by
Matthew, Gabrielle Harbowy, and David Widger
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The cover page is adapted from
Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies,
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