Asia is one. With this symbolic motto begins "The ideals of the East", an essential work to understand Eastern thought, in which Kakuzo Okakura –main authority of the time in Oriental Archeology and Art– presents his idea of ​​Asia not as a geographical concept, but as a civilization, a spiritual unity in the antipodes of western materialism and scientific progress. In "The Ideals of the East" (with special reference to Japanese art), Okakura defines the Japanese tradition as a confluence of Indian individualism and Chinese communitarianism and, consequently, as the reflection of the entire Asian conscience. If «Asia is one», Japan has always been and will be its artistic and spiritual summit.