A graceful, witty meditation on Japanese aesthetics and culture as reflected through the tea ceremony, originally published in 1906. A celebrity and cultural ambassador in his day, Okakura was a curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Written with the intention of being read aloud in the famous salon of Isabella Gardner, nearly a century later, Kakuzo's The Book of Tea has become a classic. Interwoven with a rich history of tea and its place in Japanese society is poignant commentary on Eastern culture and our ongoing fascination with it, as well as illuminating essays on art, spirituality and poetry.  (JPN333, $19.00)