- In this Japanese name, the family name is Sen.
Sen no Rikyū (千利休?, 1522 - April 21, 1591, also known simply as Sen Rikyū), is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyū is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyū throughout.
There are three iemoto (sōke), or "head houses" of the Japanese Way of Tea, that are directly descended from Rikyū: the Urasenke, the Omotesenke, and the Mushakōjisenke, all three of which are dedicated to passing forward the teachings of their mutual family founder, Rikyū.
Early life
Rikyū was born in Sakai, in present-day Osaka prefecture. His father was a warehouse owner named Tanaka Yōhei (田中与兵衛?), who later in life also used the family name Sen, and his mother was Gesshin Myōchin (月岑妙珎?).[1] His childhood name was Yoshiro.[2]
As a young man, Rikyū studied tea under the townsman of Sakai named Kitamuki Dōchin (1504–62),[3] and 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. He 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.[4] He married a woman known as Hōshin Myōju (? - 1577) around when he was twenty-one.[5] Rikyū also underwent Zen training at Daitokuji temple in Kyoto. Not much is known about his middle years.
Later years
At the age of 58, Rikyū became tea master for Oda Nobunaga[6] and, following Nobunaga's death, he was tea master for Toyotomi Hideyoshi.[7] 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" (利休居士?)[8] and the title "The Honourable Tea Path of the Realm" (天下御茶道, Tenka Gosadō?)(citation please). He was a cherished and important retainer to Hideyoshi, 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, and which is credited to his design. 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 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?, "the way of the house of Sen"). A writer and poet, the tea master referred to the ware and it's relationship with the tea ceremony, saying "Though you wipe your hands and brush off the dust and dirt from the vessels, what is the use of all this fuss if the heart is still impure?"
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.[9]
Rikyū had a number of children, including a son known in history as Sen Dōan, and daughter known as Okame. This daughter became the bride of Rikyū's second wife's son by a previous marriage, known in history as Sen Shōan.
Rikyū also wrote poetry, and practiced ikebana.
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]
According to Okakura Kakuzo in The Book of Tea, Rikyū's 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. [10]
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.[11]
Rikyū's grave is located at Jukōin temple in the Daitokuji compound in Kyoto; his posthumous Buddhist name is Fushin'an Rikyū Sōeki 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, the subsidiary temple Jukōin at Daitokuji temple.
See also
Further reading
References
- ^ Rikyū Daijiten (Rikyū Encyclopedia). Tankosha, 1989. ISBN4-473-01110-0.
- ^ a b "The Urasenke Legacy: Family Lineage", in Urasenke website. Accessed May 16, 2006.
- ^ Anderson, Jennifer L. (1991). An introduction to the Japanese tea ritual. Albany, New York: State University of New York. p. 35. ISBN 0-7914-0749-7.
- ^ Nishibe Bunjo, "Zen priests and Ther Concepts of Tea," p. 13, in Chanoyu Quarterly no. 13 (1976).
- ^ Rikyū Daijiten, entry for Hōshin Myōju
- ^ Anderson, p. 36.
- ^ Anderson, p. 37
- ^ "The Urasenke Legacy: Family Lineage", in Urasenke website. Accessed May 16, 2006.
- ^ Rikyū Daijiten
- ^ Okakura, Kakuzo, The Book of Tea pp 64-65. Toronto: Dover Publications. 1964.
- ^ Sansom, George (1961). "A History of Japan: 1334-1615." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp364,370.
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