Sen no Rikyū, also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects of the ceremony, including rustic simplicity, directness of approach and honesty of self. Originating from the Sengoku period and the Azuchi–Momoyama period, these aspects of the tea ceremony persist. Rikyū is known by many names; for consistency, he will be referred to as Rikyū in this article.
Chashitsu in Japanese tradition is an architectural space designed to be used for tea ceremony (chanoyu) gatherings.
Takuan Sōhō was a Japanese Buddhist prelate during the Sengoku and early Edo Periods of Japanese history. He was a major figure in the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Noted for his calligraphy, poetry, tea ceremony, he is also popularly credited with the invention of the takuan pickled radish.
Daitoku-ji is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" (sangō) by which it is known is Ryūhōzan (龍宝山). The Daitoku-ji temple complex today covers more than 23 hectares.
The Rinzai school ,named after Linji Yixuan is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of Chan Buddhism was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan Eisai. Contemporary Japanese Rinzai is derived entirely from the Ōtōkan lineage transmitted through Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), who is a major figure in the revival of the Rinzai tradition.
Urasenke (裏千家) is one of the main schools of Japanese tea ceremony. Along with Omotesenke and Mushakōjisenke, it is one of the three lines of the Sen family descending from Sen no Rikyū, which together are known as the san-Senke or the "three Sen houses/families" (三千家).
The Higashiyama culture is a segment of Japanese culture that includes innovations in architecture, the visual arts and theatre during the late Muromachi period. It originated and was promoted in the 15th century by the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, after he retired to his villa in the eastern hills of capital city Kyoto.
Tsuda Sōgyū was a Japanese tea master.
Furuta Oribe, whose birth name was Furuta Shigenari, was a daimyō and celebrated master of the Japanese tea ceremony. He was originally a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Imai Sōkyū was a 16th century merchant in the Japanese port town of Sakai, and a master of the tea ceremony. His yagō was Naya.
The history of tea in Japan began as early as the 8th century, when the first known references were made in Japanese records. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys sent to China to learn about its culture brought tea to Japan. The Buddhist monks Kūkai and Saichō may have been the first to bring tea seeds to Japan. The first form of tea brought from China was probably brick tea. Tea became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.
"Schools of Japanese tea" refers to the various lines or "streams" of Japanese tea ceremony. The word "schools" here is an English rendering of the Japanese term 'ryūha' (流派).
Sen Shōan (千少庵) was a Japanese tea ceremony master, and is distinguished in Japanese cultural history as the second generation in the Sen family tradition of Japanese tea ceremony founded by his father-in-law, Sen no Rikyū. His father was Miyaō Saburō, who was a resident of Sakai and was a master at playing the Japanese hand drum (tsuzumi). Circumstantial evidence indicates that Miyaō Saburō probably died around the year 1553. Shōan's mother, the wife of Miyaō Saburō, was known as Sōon. She became the second wife of Sen no Rikyū. Shōan was adopted into the Sen family and became the son-in-law of Rikyū when he married Rikyū's daughter Okame. The oldest boy born between Shōan and Okame was Sen Sōtan, the third generation in the Sen family tradition of Japanese tea ceremony.
Takeno Jōō was a master of the tea ceremony and a well-known merchant during the Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japan. His name has come down in Japanese cultural history because he followed Murata Jukō as an early proponent of wabi-cha, and was chanoyu teacher to Sen no Rikyū.
Sen no Sōtan (千宗旦) (1578–1658), also known as Genpaku Sōtan 元伯宗旦, was the grandson of the famed figure in Japanese cultural history, Sen no Rikyū. He is remembered as Rikyū's third-generation successor in Kyoto through whose efforts and by whose very being, as the blood-descendant of Rikyū, the ideals and style of Japanese tea ceremony proposed by Rikyū were able to be passed forward by the family.
Murata Jukō is known in Japanese cultural history as the founder of the Japanese tea ceremony, in that he was the early developer of the wabi-cha style of tea enjoyment employing native Japanese implements. His name may also be pronounced Murata Shukō.
Southern Record is a purported book of secrets describing the teachings of the tea saint, Sen no Rikyū.
The Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony, also known in English as the Grand Kitano Tea Gathering, was a large Japanese tea ceremony event that was hosted by the regent and chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi at Kitano Tenmangū shrine in Kyoto on the first day of the tenth month in the year Tenshō 15 (1587). Japanese cultural historians view it as a major cultural event of the Momoyama period. Louise Cort points out these three reasons: The event was "a key move in Hideyoshi's strategy to prove his cultural legitimacy; a turning point in the development of chanoyu style and theory; and a crisis in the personal relationship between its chief designers, two of the most influential figures of the Momoyama period, Hideyoshi and Sen no Rikyū".
Ueda Sōko (上田宗箇) was a warlord who lived during the Momoyama and early Edo Periods. He is best known for founding the Ueda Sōko-ryū, a warrior class school of Japanese tea ceremony from Hiroshima. Ueda Sōko went by the name Satarō (佐太郎) in his younger days and later Shigeyasu (重安). He received his Zen practitioner's name of Chikuin (竹隠) by the 111th patriarch of Daitoku-ji, Shunoku Sōen. Today his death plaque is enshrined at the Sangen-in sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, beside that of his long time teacher in the Way of Tea, Furuta Oribe. Sōko was held in high esteem by Toyotomi Hideyoshi for military exploits and as a tea master. In the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), Sōko sided with Toyotomi's Western Army and was thus defeated. During the Siege of Osaka Summer Campaign (1615), Sōko fought with Asano Yoshinaga on the Tokugawa side, and for this Sōko was given a pardon by Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1619, the Tokogawa shogunate assigned the Geishū Domain to Asano Nagaakira and Sōko relocated to Hiroshima serving Nagaakira. Sōko was given a fief of 17,000 koku of rice in west Hiroshima and the role of Chief Retainer of the Geishū Domain for the Asano.
Nanshū-ji (南宗寺) is a Buddhist temple in the Sakai ward of the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It belongs to the Daitoku-ji-branch of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. Its main image is a Shaka Sanzon. Its Japanese garden, laid out by Furuta Oribe in 1619, is designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty. The temple is the bodaiji of the Miyoshi clan and for many schools of the Japanese tea ceremony.
