THE IDEALS OF THE EAST, by Okakura Kakuzo. Tokyo: ICG Muse Inc., 2000, 250 pp., 1,300 yen.
This is a meticulous reprint of the 1904 American edition of one of the first important works on Japanese aesthetics in English. It was the initial book from its writer, later famous for "The Book of Tea," and it had a wide influence, both artistic and political, on the appreciation of Asian arts.
Okakura Kakuzo (1863-1913) was very much a product of the Meiji Era that he so revolted against. No slogans about progress and enlightenment for him. He thought that Japan was already enlightened -- and by the East, not by the West.
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