The *Kissa Yojoki* ("Treatise on Drinking Tea for Health") was written by the early-Kamakura Zen monk Eisai (1141–1215) and is the oldest Japanese book on tea, setting out its effects on body and mind. It stands at the starting point of Japanese tea history.
Composition
Eisai travelled twice to Song China and brought back Rinzai Zen together with tea seeds and the method of preparing tea. In 1214 he is said to have presented tea and a volume to the shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo to treat a hangover, and that volume is identified with this text. Of its two parts, the first concerns the medicinal properties of tea and the second those of mulberry.
In practice
The opening — "tea is the miraculous medicine for maintaining health, the secret art of extending life" — is quoted in talks and at gatherings.
Why it matters
The text shows that tea entered Japan as medicine for monks, not as an art. Everything aesthetic in the tradition is a later development on top of this.
About this article
Edited by the operator of Chaen (a one-person operation) / Last updated:
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