Sen no rikyu
Sen no Rikyū ( Japanese 千 利 休 ; * 1522 in Sakai ; † April 21, 1591 ) is an important person of the Japanese Sengoku period and had a significant influence on the development of the Japanese tea ceremony .
meaning
Rikyū combined aspects of daily life with the highest spiritual and philosophical demands to create “a unique way of life”, which has been conveyed to the present day as the “tea way”.
Rikyū was a man of simple taste and a sophisticated, disciplined lifestyle. He defined the term wabi cha (tea of the quiet taste, see below), which stands for simplicity, rurality and other modest properties in the tea ceremony. Wabi cha emphasizes the validity of these ideals after the tea ceremony had been revolutionized by Ikkyū a century earlier .
Rikyū's extraordinary sense of beauty also shaped raku ceramics , Japanese architecture , design and countless arts and crafts associated with the world of tea.
Life path
Rikyū, whose original name was Yoshiro , was born in Sakai . His father was the warehouse owner Tanaka Yohei ( 田中 与 兵衛 ). However, Rikyū used the (Korean) family name Sen ( 千 ) after his grandfather Sen'ami , a Korean immigrant who worked for Ashikaga Yoshimasa . During his youth he practiced Zen in Nanju-ji in Sakai near Dairin - he took the name Hosensai Soeki . Yoshiro began studying the tea ceremony at a young age. His first teacher, Kitamuki Dochin, taught him the traditional style of the tea ceremony, which was appropriate for the shoin (reception room). Later he learned the new style of the small, thatched tea house from Takeno Joo . He later lived in Daitoku-ji . This temple in northwest Kyoto had a long, deep connection with the tea ceremony. Sen later collected donations for the construction of the Sanmon gate of Daitoku-ji, which is why he is still honored with a statue in this temple.
In 1585 he served as a chajin at a special tea ceremony at the imperial court, whereupon the Taikō Toyotomi Hideyoshi had him confer the title Rikyū Koji by decree . (Koji, i.e., "noble" was the lowest rank in the Buddhist hierarchy.)
Rikyū already wrote a poem during this time: "Although many people drink tea - if you do not know the way of tea, the tea will drink you up."
Another well-known quote from Rikyū reads: "The way of tea is nothing but this: first you boil water, then you make the tea and drink it." An inner understanding of the meaning and poetry of this statement can only be achieved after a long practice of the tea way.
Since the age of 58 he served the Oda Nobunaga as tea master. After his death he became the supreme tea master of Toyotomi Hideyoshi , the de facto successor to Nobunaga. Hideyoshi continued Nobunaga's policy of conquest and unified Japan after ten years of civil war. Formally, Rikyū was only responsible for the tea. Due to the frequent personal contact he had with the regent during the ceremony, however, he also gained great influence on Hideyoshi in other matters.
"Rikyū created the tea forms with the work Hyaku-jō-seiki ( 百丈 清 槻 ) and determined them for ever." The three Sen schools of the tea path, the Sansenke ( Omotosenke , Urasenke and Mushakoji Senke ) lead back to him. . The division into the three family lines was carried out by the grandson Sen Sōtan. He is the founder of the Urasenke tradition line of Cha-do, which is now in the 16th generation. The family served the princely Maeda and Hisamatsu families for generations during the Tokugawa era .
At this time, the Chanoyu tea ceremony came into contact with Christian missionaries who came to Sakai and Kyōto and made friends with Rikyū and other teachers of the tea way. Among the seven main disciples of Rikyū were three Christians: Furuta Oribe , Takayama Ukon and Gamō Ujisato.
Wabi-cha
In the later years of his life, Rikyū established and practiced the ideal of Wabi-cha , which is based on the theory that tea and Zen are one. This theory was further developed by Sōtan (1578-1658; = Gempaku ). (Sōtan was the son of Rikyū's stepson from his second marriage.) With a keen sense, Rikyū selected things from everyday objects for use in the tea room. Rikyū continued this turning away from imported Chinese utensils, which had already been started by Jo-o. His selection, which was already regarded as excellent at the time, is still exemplary today.
It was Rikyū who at the time instructed the roof tile maker Chōjirō ( 長 vermutlich ) , who was probably from Korea, to make a new type of tea bowl, which is now known as raku ceramic . The seal "raku" means something like "pleasant feeling, comfort, affection, well-being, simplicity, lightness." It was awarded by Hideyoshi to the raku family, but not to Chōjirō, but to his employee Tanaka Sōkei, who may have a son Rikyūs was.
Rikyū's innovative architectural design and exemplary use of space can be seen in his Taian ( 待 庵 ) tea house in the Myōki-an temple near Kyoto. The whole world of Rikyū is shown here in a two tatami- sized room. Because of its cultural importance, this tea house has been declared a national treasure of Japan by the Japanese government . There is a tradition that Rikyū built the tiny tea room with only two tatami to receive Hideyoshi after his Korean campaign. Hence the name Taian Tai hut, as Hideyoshi's nickname was Tai-ko.
As Rikyū neared the completion of his life's work, the Great Tea Meeting at the Kitano Shrine was convened in October 1587 in northwest Kyoto. At that time, Hideyoshi and Rikyu were very close. Hideyoshi therefore announced that everyone, rich or poor, high or low birth, should bring a pot for water and a pot for tea and attend the meeting. Over 1000 people from all walks of life then gathered at the shrine. Hideyoshi built a solid gold tea house, while Rikyū used the thatched hut he preferred. Both extremes of tea were present in Kitano. Originally the duration of the 'Dai-Kitano-Chakai', the big tea gathering of Kitano, was planned to last for one week. But on the second day Hideyoshi finished the event. The reasons for this are still unknown and controversial. But after this event, the relationship between Rikyū and Hideyoshi was marked by great tension. A short time later Hideyoshi ordered the ritual suicide ( seppuku ) of Rikyu. It is still unclear why Hideyoshi gave the order to seppuku.
Daitoku-ji and death
Hideyoshi was close friends with Rikyū. The general showed the master a respect and admiration like hardly any other person. But it was a dangerous age in which one did not trust one's relatives and friends. The tea master's enemies managed to persuade Hideyoshi that his friend Rikyū was involved in a conspiracy against him and that he wanted to poison him. Hideyoshi became suspicious and sentenced him to death. But the exact circumstances that led to the seppuku's order are still unclear. There are various legends about these circumstances. One says that Rikyū and the Sakai merchants invested a considerable amount of money in the expansion of the Daitokuji entrance gate. Thereupon the monks placed a statue on the upper floor of the gate out of gratitude. Hideyoshi is said to have been angry that he had to go 'under the feet of his subordinate'. As a result of this so-called Daitokuji Tor affair, he had to - honorably - commit seppuku . The beheaded statue of Rikyū was later found in the Kamo River. The two separate parts of the head and torso are kept in the family shrines of the Urasenke and the Omotosenke to this day. According to another opinion, Rikyū contradicted the Shogun in his war plans. According to a third view, Hideyoshi is said to have coveted Rikyu's daughter, which Rikyu is said to have prevented.
Rikyū was already 71 years old. After saying goodbye to his family and his students, he wrote his death poem , which consists of a Buddhist farewell poem ( 遺 偈 , yuige ) in the first part and a waka in the second part :
| Kanji | Romaji | free translation after Suzuki Daisetsu |
|---|---|---|
|
人生 七十 |
jinsei shichijū |
I raise the sword, |
The second line is based on Unmon Zenji's Zen verse Totsu totsu totsu riki i ki ( 咄咄 咄 力 囗 希 , Eng . "Ha! Ha! Ha! ... Ka!"), Which was popularized by this farewell poem. totsu a strained exclamation with no real meaning. The 4 and 5 Kanji together form the exclamation Ka [sometimes also written together as one character]. The final Ki also has no real meaning here and serves to reinforce the preceding.
After Rikyū's death, his innocence proved, Hideyoshi regretted his conviction and the loss of such an important person.
Reception in literature and film
The life of Rikyū was filmed twice in 1989. For one, this is The Death of a Tea Master by Kei Kumai, which is based on the book The Death of the Tea Master by Yasushi Inoue . On the other hand, there is Rikyu, the tea master of Hiroshi Teshigahara , who in turn is based on a story by Nogami Yaeko .
See also
literature
- Yasushi Inoue : The Death of the Tea Master . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-41901-4 (Japanese: 本 覺 坊 遺 文 . Translated by Ursula Gräfe , biographical novel).
- Charly Iten: The tea route and the world of Japanese tea cups. On the pottery of the kilns valued by Sen no Rikyū and Furuta Oribe . Zurich 2004 ( full text [PDF; 22.5 MB ] dissertation).
- Herbert Plutschow: Rediscovering Rikyu and the beginning of the Japanese Tea ceremony . Folkestone 2003, ISBN 1-901903-35-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zen words in the tea room
- ↑ Victor Sōgen Hori: Zen Sand. The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice . University of Hawaii Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8248-2284-6 , pp. 247 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sen no rikyu |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yoshiro |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese tea master of the Sengoku period |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1522 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sakai , Osaka Prefecture |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 21, 1591 |