Overview

An ideal introduction for students new to Japanese philosophy and aesthetics, Phenomenology of Tea invites readers into a dialogue throughout the fascinating aesthetic worlds of the Japanese tea ceremony, delving into its rich history, its philosophical influences and religious backgrounds all synthesized into a ritual, which brings Japanese culture to one of its highest expressions. Tea guests begin their tour by discussing the deep intercultural challenges with foreign intellectual and artistic traditions, considering phenomenology and Kyoto School philosophy as means for bridging Eastern and Western worlds. Throughout the journey, the astonishing elements of the ceremony provoke discussion on the aesthetics of landscape gardening, of stone, vegetation, and water, and their philosophical significance in Buddhism, Daoism and Shintoism. Once inside the hut, the profound beauty of tea is revealed through traditional aesthetic practices of calligraphy, poetry, architecture, flower arranging, and pottery. As the plenitude of philosophic and aesthetic experience culminates in the first sip of matcha, readers are transported by way of Buddhist ideas into the world of Japanese cinema, where all ideas about the ceremony dissolve into emptiness. Featuring a conversational style, discussion questions, further readings, and meticulous illustrations, this book also provides a phenomenological reading of the tea ceremony, and offers new avenues for research and teaching in the field.

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9781350246577

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Reviews

Through an inventive exploration of the aesthetic experience of the tea ceremony, Adam Loughnane unravels the seeming paradoxes of Eastern philosophy, illuminating not only distinctive but also some surprisingly congruent aspects of the Western tradition. His approach is both light-hearted and deeply serious, and a remarkable achievement! * Nadine Willems, Associate Professor of Japanese History, University of East Anglia, UK * The philosophical dialogue is a challenging form, and Adam Loughnane acquits himself admirably, placing it creatively in a tour narrative. From the phenomenological perspectives of a philosopher, an artist, a theologian, and a Guide, he focuses on the traditional tea ceremony as a prism that illuminates the aesthetics of Japanese garden making, architecture, ceramics, calligraphy, flower arrangement, and more. Brilliant! * Graham Parkes, University of Vienna, Austria *

Through an inventive exploration of the aesthetic experience of the tea ceremony, Adam Loughnane unravels the seeming paradoxes of Eastern philosophy, illuminating not only distinctive but also some surprisingly congruent aspects of the Western tradition. His approach is both light-hearted and deeply serious, and a remarkable achievement! * Nadine Willems, Associate Professor of Japanese History, University of East Anglia, UK *

Author Information

Adam Loughnane is Lecturer in Philosophy at University College Cork, Ireland. He is Co-Director of the Irish Institute of Japanese Studies, author of Merleau-Ponty and Nishida: Artistic Expression as 'Motor-Perceptual faith' (2019) and editor of Ueda Shizuteru: Zen, Language, Experience (2020).

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