Of Japanese scholar and philosopher Okakura Kakuzo's many gifts to Isabella, perhaps the most impressive was this tea set he sent to her from Japan in 1905. Earlier that year, he had conducted the tea ceremony (chanoyu) by candlelight one evening at the Museum. At this time, Okakura was writing The Book of Tea, an immensely popular book still in print, which uses the tea ceremony as an introduction to Japanese culture. Isabella had already participated in a tea ceremony in Tokyo in 1883.

Following tea practices established over several centuries, Okakura gathered objects of divers materials, colors, textures, origins, and dates.  After Okakura's death, Isabella displayed the set on a table in the Chinese Room.