Born in Fukui, Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture) and raised in Yokohama, he acquired English from an early age. He met Ernest Fenollosa at Tokyo University (the predecessor Kaisei School) and became involved in the investigation and study of Japanese art. In 1889 he became the first principal of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (present-day Tokyo University of the Arts) and devoted himself to promoting Japanese painting and crafts that had been overshadowed by Western-style painting. However, in opposition to the bureaucratic system he resigned in 1898 and, together with Yokoyama Taikan and Shimomura Kanzan, established the "Japan Art Institute" for independent artistic activity. His English-language book "The Book of Tea" (1906) became a bestseller introducing Eastern spiritual culture and aesthetics to the West through the tea ceremony, broadcasting his idea of "Asia is One" to the world. He also served as Curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, elevating the international reputation of Japanese art. With a free-spirited personality and passion for art, he was an artist and thinker whose pen name "Tenshin" (Heart toward Heaven) perfectly suited him. He passed away at Ibaraki Prefecture's Izura Coast in 1913, at age 50.

A person of intensely free-spirited personality who refused to bow to authority. An internationalist who held deep pride in Japanese culture while actively absorbing Western culture. His passion for art and the ideological conviction of "Asia is One" were the driving forces of his action.

"The Book of Tea" is still read worldwide as a classic of East-West cultural discourse. As the founder of Tokyo University of the Arts, he laid the foundations of Japanese arts education. The Izura Coast and Rokkakudo hexagonal pavilion in Kitaibaraki City, Ibaraki, attract many visitors as places associated with Okakura Tenshin.