Europe first received information about the tea art of Japan in the 16th century through the Jesuits. Horst Siegfried Hennemann examines the writings ("chasho") of the tea masters, an educational and cultural elite that created Japan's tea culture. Additionally, there are explanations regarding the techniques and methodologies of tea preparation, rhetoric, as well as the architecture of tea rooms and gardens. This work contributes to Japan-related humanities and cultural history research, clarifying ethical and aesthetic value systems and art theoretical categories that are unknown to European cultural and intellectual history in the specific form of tea art.