Japanese sado, or tea ceremony is now known worldwide. Sen no rikyu is a the person who changed drinking tea into an art. This happened just before the start of the edo period. Rikyo is famous for being a sado master, but he also had a lot of political power during this period.
Rikyu was born in fifteen twenty two in sakai, which is part of Osaka prefecture today. He was a son of a rich merchant. He studied under the tea master, takeno jo o. jo o was not only an expaert on tea but also knew a lot about waka poetry and zen. He believed that making tea and zen came from the same roots. Creating peace of mind. Rikyu learned a lot from him.
In his late forties, Rikyu became Oda nobunaga’s tea master. This wasn’t actual government position. He held many tea parties for nobunaga and his guests. By this time, sado was very popular in japan. And Rikyu became famous. Around then, he decided the size of the fireplace in the tearoom. He also started using a new type of tea bowl. While working for nobunaga, Rikyu was slowly developing his own style of sado.
Nobunaga died during the honnoji incident, so Rikyu started working for the new leader, toyotomi hideyoshi. But what really happened during this time? When Rikyu heard about the honnoji incident, he rushed to hideyoshi to help him prepare for his role as a leader in Kyoto. He might have even given hideyoshi money in and soldiers for his army. What we do know is Rikyu became important for hideyoshi. He was like a secretary.
After working for hideyoshi for several years, Rikyu began to notice their ideas were different. Rikyu liked the idea of minimalism, but hideyoshi liked expensive things. Also Rikyu’s idea of ichigo ichie or enjoy every meeting with a new person didn’t match with hideyoshi’s idea of make money from every new person you meet. Rikyu also didn’t like that sado was used as a communication tool in politics. He thought it should be a form of art. Soon, Rikyu started to pose oppose hideyoshi’s ideas. Hideyoshi did not like this. And in fifteen nineteen one, he ordered Rikyu to kill himself by seppuku. Usually only samurais are ordered to do this. So this may suggest that hideyoshi thought of Rikyu as a samurai.
In later years, when hideyoshi was building a tearoom for a new castle, he said, oh I wish Rikyu could design this room.
Maybe hideyoshi was secretly sad that he had ordered Rikyu to kill himself.
Rikyu was a tea master who is famous for developing sado. But he was also a wall-respected person who was close to the great leaders of his time.