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Sen no Rikyu
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is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony, particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyu is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyu throughout.
Rikyu was born in Sakai, in present-day Osaka prefecture.
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is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony, particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyu is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyu throughout.
Rikyu was born in Sakai, in present-day Osaka prefecture. His father was a warehouse owner named , who later in life also used the family name Sen, and his mother was . His childhood name was Yoshiro.
There are three iemoto (soke), or "head houses" of the Japanese Way of Tea that are directly descended from Rikyu. They are the Urasenke, Omotesenke and Mushakojisenke (see Mushanokojisenke).
Early life
As a young man, Rikyu studied tea under the townsman of Sakai named Kitamuki Dochin (1504-62), and is believed to have received the Buddhist name Soeki from the Rinzai Zen priest Dairin Soto (1480-1568) of Nanshuji temple in Sakai. At the age of nineteen, through Dochin's introduction he began to study tea under Takeno Joo, who is also associated with the development of the wabi aesthetic in tea ceremony. Rikyu also underwent Zen training at Daitokuji temple in Kyoto. Not much is known about his middle years.
Later years
At the age of 58, Rikyu became tea master for Oda Nobunaga and, following Nobunaga's death, he was tea master for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1585, in order that he could help at a tea gathering that would be given by Hideyoshi for Emperor Ogimachi and held at the Imperial Palace, the emperor bestowed upon him the Buddhist lay name and title "Rikyu Koji." He was a cherished and important retainer to Hideyoshi, who granted him large estates in 1573, and presided over a large and important tea ceremony held by Hideyoshi at the Kitano Tenman-gu in 1587.
It was during his later years that Rikyu began to use very tiny, rustic tearooms referred as soan (lit., "grass hermitage"), such as the two-tatami tearoom named Taian, which can be seen today at Myokian temple in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto. This tea room has been designated as a national treasure. He also developed many implements for tea ceremony, including flower containers, teascoops, and lid rests made of bamboo, and also used everyday objects for tea ceremony, often in novel ways.
Raku teabowls were originated through his collaboration with a tile-maker named Raku Chojiro. Rikyu had a preference for simple, rustic items made in Japan, rather than the expensive Chinese-made items that were fashionable at the time. Though not the inventor of the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the very simple, Rikyu is among those most responsible for popularizing it, developing it, and incorporating it into tea ceremony. He created a new form of tea ceremony using very simple instruments and surroundings. This and his other beliefs and teachings eventually became formalized into the school of tea ceremony called .
Two of his primary disciples were Nanbo Sokei (????; dates unknown), a somewhat legendary Zen priest, and Yamanoue Soji (1544-90), a townsman of Sakai. Nanbo is credited as the original author of the Nanpo roku, a record of Rikyu's teachings. Yamanoue's chronicle, the Yamanoue Soji ki, gives commentary about Rikyu's teachings and the state of chanoyu at the time of its writing.
Rikyu had a number of children, including a son known in history as Sen Doan, and daughter known as Okame. This daughter became the bride of the Rikyu's second wife's son, known in history as Sen Shoan.
Rikyu also wrote poetry, and practiced ikebana.flowers for chanoyu are not called ikebana; need verification about him practicing ikebana
Death
Although Rikyu had been one of Hideyoshi's closest confidants, because of crucial differences of opinion and other reasons which remain uncertain, Hideyoshi ordered him to commit ritual suicide, which he did at his residence within Hideyoshi's Jurakudai villa in Kyoto on the 28th day of the 2nd month (of the traditional Japanese lunar calendar; or April 21 when calculated according to the modern Gregorian calendar), 1591, at the age of seventy.
It is said that when Hideyoshi was building his lavish residence at Fushimi the following year, he remarked that he wished its construction and decoration to be pleasing to Rikyu. He was known for his temper, and is said to have expressed regret at his treatment of Rikyu.
According to Okakura Kakuzo in The Book of Tea, his last act was to hold an exquisite tea ceremony. After serving all his guests, he presented each piece of the tea-equipage for their inspection, along with an exquisite kakemono, which Okakura described as "a wonderful writing by an ancient monk dealing with the evanescence of all things." Rikyu presented each of his guests with a piece of the equipment as a souvenir, with the exception of the bowl, which he shattered, uttering "Never again shall this cup, polluted by the lips of misfortune, be used by man." As the guests departed, one remained to serve as witness to Rikyu's death. Rikyu's last words, which he wrote down as a death poem, were in verse, addressed to the dagger with which he took his own life:
- Welcome to thee,
- O sword of eternity!
- Through Buddha
- And through Daruma alike
- Thou hast cleft thy way.
Rikyu's grave is located at Jukoin temple in the Daitokuji compound in Kyoto; his posthumous Buddhist name is Fushin'an Rikyu Soeki Koji.
Memorials for Rikyu are observed annually by many schools of Japanese tea ceremony. The Urasenke school's annual memorial takes place at the family's headquarters each year on March 28. The three Sen families (Omotesenke, Urasenke, Mushakojisenke) take turns holding a memorial service on the 28th of every month, at their mutual family temple, Jukoin.
See also
External links
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