SELF-PERCEPTION AND SELF-PROJECTION: JAPAN IN OKAKURA KAKUZ ’S THE BOOK OF TEA AND ITS TRANSLATIONS
SELF-PERCEPTION AND SELF-PROJECTION: JAPAN IN OKAKURA KAKUZ ’S THE BOOK OF TEA AND ITS TRANSLATIONS

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the omissions, adaptations, misquotations, etc, hereby referred to as cultural translation tricks, that Okakura Kakuz􀅮 (Tenshin) employed when writing “The Book of Tea” for a foreign audience. It then compares the translations in the Japanese language, on the one hand pointing out their connection to the historical background, and on the other hand identifying some of the difficulties the translators of “The Book of Tea” encountered in their attempt to re-transplant Okakura’s Teaism in its original cultural context. While the first translations seem to be relating Teaism to the century-old tradition of cha-no-yu, the bilingual books in circulation nowadays advertise “The Book of Tea” as the perfect English teaching material, and as a way “the heart of Japan” could be communicated to the West. At the same time, the combination between books and tea is becoming part of the European mainstream reading experience, and Okakura’s ideas about Teaism as the locus of a conversation between East and West seems to be finally taking shape.

• Details
• Contents