Kaiseki, the cooking associated with the tea ceremony, is Japan's most sublime cuisine. Every effort is made to perfectly accommodate aroma, flavor, color, texture & serving ware to the season, guests & occasion. The techniques & principles that enable one to create a sense of harmony through a meal are given in this book.

The past few years have shown a growing interest in cooking and food, as a result of international food issues such as BSE, world trade and mass foreign travel, and at the same time there has been growing interest in Japanese Studies since the 1970s. This volume brings together the two interests of Japan and food, examining both from a number of perspectives. The book reflects on the social and cultural side of Japanese food, and at the same time reflects also on the ways in which Japanese culture has been affected by food, a basic human institution. Providing the reader with the historical and social bases to understand how Japanese cuisine has been and is being shaped, this book assumes minimal familiarity with Japanese society, but instead explores the country through the topic of its cuisine.

Random House 1977Zen History,Haiku, Ceramics, Archery, Landscape Garden, Stone Garden, Ink Landscape Scroll, Zen Architecture, Sword, Katana, No Theater, Noh Theater, Japanese Tea Ceremony, Flower arranging, Ikebana, Zen Ceramic Art, Raku, Shino, Ryoanji-ji 'Highly recommended'The Center for Asian Studies'A connoisseur'NYC-FM'Hoover provides an excellent introduction

Enchanting and enigmatic, chanoyu (Japanese tea ritual) has puzzled western observers since the sixteenth century. Here is a book written by a tea practitioner that explains why over twenty million modern Japanese — and a small but dedicated group of non-Japanese — follow "The Way of Tea." Meticulously researched, An Introduction to Japanese Tea Ritual is clearly written and illustrated, and includes an extensive glossary.

Japan's brief but dramatic Momoyama period (1573-1615) witnessed the struggles of a handful of ambitious warlords for control of the long-splintered country and finally the emergence of a united Japan. This was also an era of dynamic cultural development in which the feudal lords sponsored lavish, innovative arts to proclaim their newly acquired power. One such art was a ceramic ware known as Oribe, whose mysterious sudden appearance and rise in popularity are explored in this book. Ceramics are closely connected to the tea ceremony and central to Japanese culture. In this context Oribe wares represented a unique and major development, since they were the easiest Japanese ceramics to carry extensive multicolor decoration. Boldly painted with geometric and naturalistic designs, they display sensuous glazes, especially in a distinctive vitreous green, as well as a whole repertoire of playful new shapes. Their genesis has tradtionally been ascribed to Furuta Oribe (1543/44-1615), a warrior and the foremost tea master of his time, who appears to have played a crucial role in redefining the aesthetics of Japan. Over seventy engaging vessels of Oribe ware, along with striking examples of other types of wares produced in the same milieu, make up the heart of this catalogue. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

The world's most comprehensive, well documented, and well illustrated book on this subject, with 445 photographs and illustrations. Plus an extensive index.

Ceramics give pleasure to our everyday lives, from the beauty of a vase’s elegant curves to the joy of a meal served upon a fine platter. Ceramics originate in a direct engagement with the earth and maintain a unique place in the history of the arts. In this book, Allen S. Weiss sharpens our perception of and increases our appreciation for ceramics, all the while providing a critical examination of how and why we collect them. Weiss examines the vast stylistic range of ceramics and investigates both the theoretical and personal reasons for viewing, using, and collecting them. Relating ceramics to other arts and practices—especially those surrounding food—he explores their different uses such as in the celebrated tea ceremony of Japan. Most notably, he considers how works previously viewed as crafts have found their rightful way into museums, as well as how this new-found engagement with finely wrought natural materials may foster an increased ecological sensitivity. The result is a wide-ranging and sensitive look at a crucial part of our material culture.