Sen no Rikyū
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- In this Japanese name, the family name is Sen.
Sen no Rikyū (千利休? 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／田中與兵衞?), and his mother was Tomomi Tayuki (宝心妙樹?). His childhood name was Yoshiro.[1]
Rikyū, under the name Sen Sōeki or by his tea name Hōsensai, is considered the founder of the Sansenke, or three main schools of tea ceremony: Urasenke, Omotesenke and Mushanokōjisenke.
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[edit] Early life
As a young man, Rikyū studied tea under Kitamuki Dochin, and received the name Sōeki from the priest Dairin Soto of Nanshuji temple in Sakai. At the age of nineteen, 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 Daitoku-ji.
[edit] Later years
At the age of 58, Rikyū became tea master for Oda Nobunaga and, following Nobunaga's death, for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1585 at a tea gathering given by Hideyoshi for Emperor Ogimachi and held at the Imperial Palace, the emperor bestowed upon him the Buddhist lay name Kōji.[1] 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, 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 declared 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.
He pioneered the use of Raku teabowls and 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, and formalized this and his other beliefs and teachings into a school of tea ceremony called Senke-ryū (千家流? "the way of the house of Sen"). Two of his primary disciples were Nanbo Sōkei and Yamanoue Sōji, who wrote on Rikyū's teachings.
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 Hideyoshi's Jurakudai residence in Kyoto on February 28, 1591, at the age of seventy.[1]
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.[2]
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. [3]
Rikyū'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 Rikyū are observed annually by many schools of Japanese tea ceremony. The Urasenke school's memorial takes place each year on March 28.
