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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is kept in the anteroom?

2. Why did most great tea-masters use Zen concepts for the tea room?

3. The viewer is drawn to what about the artist?

4. Okakura relates what Taoist tale?

5. Others were trying to create what feeling?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was the Cult of Flowers developed? What is this cult?

2. Do humans deserve flowers, according to the author? Explain.

3. Why is the tea room intended to be barren?

4. Describe early tea rooms and how they changed with the innovations of Rikyu.

5. How are art masters immortal?

6. Describe the attitude of "Flower Masters" towards flowers.

7. What story does Okakura tell? What is the problem with the instrument in the book?

8. How does one enter a tea room?

9. How do the Japanese show that art is important to them?

10. Why might it be difficult for Westerners to appreciate Japanese architecture?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Zennism influenced tea rooms.

Part 1) Describe Zennism. How did Zennism influence tea rooms? What else has influenced tea room design and ritual?

Part 2) How do these tea rooms compare to other Japanese structures? What are the reasons for any differences? What does this reveal about the tea room?

Part 3) How has Zennism and other aspects of Japanese culture influenced Western culture? What does this reveal about Western culture?

Essay Topic 2

There are three eras of tea.

Part 1) What are the three main tea eras? Describe each of them and explain how each of them come to be? How are they connected?

Part 2) How does each era reflect the Japanese culture of the time? Does the tea era influence the culture or does the culture influence the tea era? Explain.

Part 3) How does art in America today reflect life? How has American art evolved to be what it is today?

Essay Topic 3

Tea began as a medicine and only gradually grew into a beverage.

Part 1) Describe the medicinal uses of tea. How did this gradually lead to tea being a beverage? How did this beverage then spread throughout the world?

Part 2) What are the three main tea eras? How did each begin? How is each era unique? What commonalities exist between these eras? What influenced how tea was made and how it was served? How important is the tea room in the tea service? How does the tea room reflect the tea master and the tea that is being served?

Part 3) How has the U.S. been affected by the spread of the popularity of tea? How is tea a part of our culture today? How does U.S. tea culture compare to the Japanese tea culture described in the book? Is one tea culture superior? If so, how? If not, why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,088 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample