Charlotte Perriand’s formation of the notion of the “vacuum” through a reading of The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify Charlotte Perriand’s (1903–1999) formation of the notion of the “vacuum” through a reading of The Book of Tea written by Kakuzo Okakura in 1906, using the French version of The Book of Tea, which Perriand possessed, and her articles that quoted this book. It is certain that her multifaceted and ethnological interests in other cultures allowed her to accept the unfamiliar notion of the “vacuum”. However, Perriand’s interpretation of the “vacuum” was characteristic. Her main interest concerning Okakura’s notion of the “vacuum” was the question of the human “gesture”, and she developed this through her direct experience of Japan. The metaphysics of the “vacuum” as before “space”, as defined by Okakura, was examined by Perriand using the question of the possibility of the unknown “gesture” in a physical “space”.

Keywords

• charlotte perriand
• kakuzo okakura
• book of tea
• vacuum
• gesture