One of the favorite books of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe was The Book of Tea, written in 1906 by Okakura Kakuzo, Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The Book of Tea was Okakura’s masterful attempt to translate the tea spirit of the East to an American culture caught up in opulent materialism. Let us drink tea and “linger in the beautiful foolishness of things,” he wrote. “Strangely enough, humanity has so far met in a teacup.”

Okakura scholar Bruce Richardson brings to life the fascinating story of a Japanese artist who inspired the West’s understanding of tea, art, and architecture while using the common metaphor of a teacup.