  200px|thumb|okakura kakuzÅ in 1898  (also known as å²¡å å¤©å¿ okakura tenshin) was a japanese scholar who contributed to the development of arts in japan. outside of japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of the book of tea.'ambassador of tea culture to the west' (biography of okakura), andrew forbes and david henley, the illustrated book of tea (chiang mai: cognoscenti books, 2012). ==biography== born in yokohama to parents originally from fukui, okakura learned english while attending a school operated by christian missionary, dr. curtis hepburn. at 15, he entered tokyo imperial university, where he first met and studied under harvard-educated professor ernest fenollosa. in 1889, okakura co-founded the periodical kokka. in 1887founding of tokyo university of the arts he was one of the principal founders of the tokyo school of fine arts (æ±äº¬ç¾è¡å­¦æ ¡ tÅkyÅ bijutsu gakkÅ), and a year later became its head, although he was later ousted from the school in an administrative struggle. later, he also founded the japan art institute with hashimoto gahÅ and yokoyama taikan. he was invited by william sturgis bigelow to the museum of fine arts, boston in 1904 and became the first head of the asian art division in 1910. okakura was a high-profile urbanite who had an international sense of self. in the meiji period he was the first dean of the tokyo fine arts school (later merged with the tokyo music school to form the current tokyo university of the arts). he wrote all of his main works in english. okakura researched japan's traditional art and traveled to europe, the united states, china and india. he emphasised the importance to the modern world of asian culture, attempting to bring its influence to realms of art and literature that, in his day, were largely dominated by western culture.rupert richard arrowsmith, "the transcultural roots of modernism: imagist poetry, japanese visual culture, and the western museum system", modernism/modernity'
1863_births 1913_deaths English-language_writers_from_Japan Japanese_writers Museum_of_Fine_Arts,_Boston People_from_Yokohama People_of_Meiji-period_Japan University_of_Tokyo_alumni