Sen no Rikyū

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In this Japanese name, the family name is Sen.

Sen no Rikyū (千利休, Sen no Rikyū^? 1522 - April 21, 1591, also known as Sen Rikyū) is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony, particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyū is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyū throughout.

Rikyū was born in Sakai, in present-day Osaka prefecture. His father was a warehouse owner named Tanaka Yōhei (田中与兵衛, Tanaka Yōhei^?), who later in life also used the family name Sen, and his mother was Gesshin Myōchin (月岑妙珎, Gesshin Myōchin^?).^[1] His childhood name was Yoshiro.^[2]

There are three iemoto (sōke), or "head houses" of the Japanese Way of Tea that are directly descended from Rikyū. They are the Urasenke, Omotesenke and Mushanokōjisenke.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Later years 3 Death 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

As a young man, Rikyū studied tea under the townsman of Sakai named Kitamuki Dōchin (1504-62), and is believed to have received the Buddhist name Sōeki (宗易) from the Rinzai Zen priest Dairin Sōtō (1480-1568) of Nanshūji temple in Sakai. At the age of nineteen, through Dōchin's introduction he began to study tea under Takeno Jōō, who is also associated with the development of the wabi aesthetic in tea ceremony. Rikyū also underwent Zen training at Daitokuji temple in Kyoto. Not much is known about his middle years.

[edit] Later years

At the age of 58, Rikyū 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 Ōgimachi and held at the Imperial Palace, the emperor bestowed upon him the Buddhist lay name and title "Rikyū Koji."^[2] 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-gū in 1587.

It was during his later years that Rikyū began to use very tiny, rustic tearooms referred as sōan (lit., "grass hermitage"), such as the two-tatami tearoom named Taian, which can be seen today at Myōkian temple in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto. This tea room has been designated as a national treasure. He also developed many implements for tea cermony, 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 Chōjirō. Rikyū 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, Rikyū 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 Senke-ryū (千家流, Senke-ryū^? "the way of the house of Sen").

Two of his primary disciples were Nanbō Sōkei (南坊宗啓; dates unknown), a somewhat legendary Zen priest, and Yamanoue Sōji (1544-90), a townsman of Sakai. Nanbō is credited as the original author of the Nanpō roku (南方録), a record of Rikyū's teachings. Yamanoue's chronicle, the Yamanoue Sōji ki (山上宗二記), gives commentary about Rikyū's teachings and the state of chanoyu at the time of its writing.^[3]

Rikyū also wrote poetry, and practiced ikebana.

[edit] Death

Although Rikyū 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.^[2]

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 Rikyū. He was known for his temper, and is said to have expressed regret at his treatment of Rikyū.^[4]

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." Rikyū 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 Rikyū's death. Rikyū'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. ^[5]

Rikyū's grave is located at Jukōin temple in the Daitokuji compound in Kyoto; his posthumous Buddhist name is Fushin'an Rikyu Soeki Koji.

Memorials for Rikyū 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, Mushakōjisenke) take turns holding a memorial service on the 28th of every month, at their mutual family temple, Jukōin.

[edit] See also

• Sen Shōan

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sen no Rikyū at Find A Grave