The death of a tea master
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The death of a tea master |
| Original title | Sen no Rikyu |
| Country of production | Japan |
| original language | Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kei Kumai |
| script | Yoshikata Yoda |
| production | Kazunobu Yamaguchi |
| music | Teizō Matsumura |
| camera | Masao Tochizawa |
| cut | Osamu Inoue |
| occupation | |
| |
The Death of a Tea Master ( Japanese 千 利 休 , Sen no Rikyū ) is a Japanese film from 1989 based on the book The Tale of Honkakubo by Yasushi Inoue . Directed by Kei Kumai , the script was written by Yoshikata Yoda . The main roles were played by Toshirō Mifune and Eiji Okuda .
The cinematic work itself is reminiscent of the director's Japanese tea ceremony ( chadō ). Wabi-Sabi , the basic principles of ethics, simplicity and beauty taught by Sen no Rikyū , also form the basis of the camera work, which mainly works with still images and still images.
action
Japan in 1618: Honkakubo, a Buddhist monk and student of the largest Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyū which twenty-seven years earlier on the orders of Prince Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Taiko) in Sakai Seppuku commit, had to feel with another student Rikyu, Oda Urakusai, a Brother Oda Nobunagas , according to the circumstances of the death of his master, which have not yet been clarified with certainty.
The three most common versions that are said to have led to the estrangement between Rikyu and his prince Taiko are cited in the film material . First, Rikyu is said to have spoken out against the Korean campaign ( Imjin War ), which Taiko Hideyoshi planned and carried out for domestic political reasons and which ultimately turned out to be a disaster. In this sense, Rikyu was accused of professing Christianity . This religion was suspiciously reflected even before the prohibitions by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in Japan. The assumption that Rikyu did not close himself to Christianity was certainly nourished by the fact that one of his master students, Furuta Oribe, had openly joined this faith, which was new in Japan. Furthermore, the monks of the Daitokuji Temple had created a life-size figurative image for their sponsor Rikyu, which found its place on an upper floor of the Sanmon temple gate, through which only the emperor or his deputy (Taiko Hideyoshi) were allowed to pass. The idea of having to walk under the feet of one of his subjects, even if it was just a statue, is said to have made the prince white-hot.
The conflict between the prince and his tea master was cinematically focused on various corner points: For example, a detailed account of a farewell ceremony that Rikyu gave for three leading monks directly below the Jurakudai Palace , who were already in open opposition to the ruler and therefore in “the Land of the West ”were exiled. To add the icing on the cake to the provocation, Rikyu used a scroll painting from the prince's private property as an accompanying room decoration, on which a poem by the Chinese Zen monk Xutang Chiu (1185-1269) (Japanese: Kidō Chigu) could be read . It read:
The leaves have fallen from the tree, the air in autumn is cold and clear. The man who is excellent in education and virtue will leave the Zen temple. Hopefully he will return soon and tell what moves his heart.
If this process happened like this, he represented an open declaration of war to the employer, which the employer could only answer with extreme violence if he did not want to run the risk of losing face.
None of the versions are saved. But each of them points to a single statement: the irreconcilable opposition between power and ethos, and the doomed attempt to oppose the power of ethics to power. Recognizing this, Rikyu is said to have worked towards the open rift with his employer with all its fatal consequences in the last years of his life.
Still, Rikyu was firmly attached to life and beauty. When asked by his student Furuta Oribe about his motto, the master answers briefly: Inochi (Eng. Life). He explains his course of confrontation with Taiko with the words: "Just as there are things that you have to protect as a prince, there are things that I have to defend as a tea master!"
In the film, Honkakubo and Uraku gradually approach these insights. Both decide, although the great days of the tea cult are definitely over, to remain uncompromising in meditation and action on the cold and stony path of tea.
Rikyu himself appears again and again in flashbacks and appearances of Honkakubo.
Other great creators of the tea cult are also mentioned in the film, such as Toyobo , Yamanoue Soji and Furuta Oribe , who each acted in a center of Japanese power and helped shape the politics of their country.
Publications
The film was released in Japanese cinemas on October 7, 1989, grossing a total of 750 million yen . He was seen less commercially successful than the published in the same year, based on another book movie Rikyu, the tea master , in which Hiroshi Teshigahara was directed and the box-office takings of 1.27 billion yen boast.
criticism
Cinema magazine called the film a “stylized excursion into Far Eastern philosophy” . The lexicon of international films notes: "A highly stylized swan song for lost traditions and values, set in strict, sober images that fully engage with the expressiveness of gestures and faces."
Awards
At the Venice Film Festival , the most important film festival alongside the Berlinale and the Cannes Film Festival, The Death of a Tea Master ran in the competition for the main prize, the Golden Lion, but Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Die Stadt der Sadness had to admit defeat. Instead, the film won the Silver Lion , along with João César Monteiro's Memories of the Yellow House .
The film was nominated in eleven categories at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1990, but only Yasuo Iwaki won for Best Lighting . The other nominations were made in the categories of Best Film , Best Director , Best Screenplay , Best Actor (Eiji Okuda), Best Cinematography , Best Editing , Best Sound , Best Equipment , Best Music and Best Supporting Actor (Kinnosuke Yorozuya). Yoshitaka Yoda won a Kinema Junpo Award for Best Screenplay .
Web links
- The death of a tea master in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Discussion of the Prussian country messenger about the film
Individual evidence
- ^ The death of the tea master, Yasuhi Inoue, Suhrkamp Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-41901-4 , p. 167
- ↑ http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~MINEO/kougyou/eig89.htm
- ↑ http://www.cinema.de/film_aktuell/filmdetail/film/?typ=inhalt&film_id=11414
- ↑ The Death of a Tea Master. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 19, 2017 .