What is said about THE BOOK OF TEA and tea at the end of the chapter?

THE BOOK OF TEA is called an "apology" to the Western world for the conservatism of Japanese culture. Okakura used tea as a symbol for life in East Asia. The tea ceremony is a quasi-religious event, but not a religious rite per se. It is a ritual to honor the aesthetic - though not necessarily the beautiful - and in this way it is truly unique. Unlike Western thought, Eastern thought as represented in the tea ceremony approaches art with a collective rather than individual perspective, and honors ancestors in a way Western attitudes do not.