Sen no Rikyu

1522 – 21 April 1591

Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) was a Japanese tea master who perfected the wabi-cha style of the tea ceremony, emphasizing rustic simplicity and spiritual depth. Serving as tea master to the warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he became one of the most influential figures in Japanese aesthetics before Hideyoshi ordered him to commit ritual suicide in 1591.

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Life events

Born in the merchant city of Sakai
1522

Rikyu was born in 1522 into a merchant family in Sakai, the prosperous port city near Osaka that was a center of tea culture.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Began studying the way of tea in his youth
c. 1540

Rikyu first studied tea under Kitamuki Dochin and then under Takeno Joo, a leading exponent of the emerging wabi aesthetic of restrained simplicity.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Practiced Zen at Daitoku-ji
c. 1550

Rikyu trained in Zen Buddhism at the Daitoku-ji monastery in Kyoto, a discipline that deeply informed his approach to tea.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Served as a tea master to Oda Nobunaga
c. 1570

The warlord Oda Nobunaga, who used tea gatherings as instruments of politics, engaged Rikyu as one of his tea masters.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Became chief tea master to Toyotomi Hideyoshi
1582

After Nobunaga's death in 1582, Rikyu served his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, becoming an intimate adviser with rare influence at the center of power.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Perfected wabi-cha and the small rustic tea room
c. 1582

Rikyu codified the wabi style of tea, favoring tiny thatched tea rooms, simple Raku tea bowls he commissioned, and an ethos of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility that still defines the Japanese tea ceremony.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Conducted tea at the imperial palace and received the name Rikyu
1585

For Hideyoshi's grand tea presented to Emperor Ogimachi in 1585, the tea master received the Buddhist name Rikyu so that he could enter the palace.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Helped direct the Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony
November 1587

Rikyu played a leading role in Hideyoshi's enormous public tea gathering at the Kitano shrine in Kyoto, open to practitioners of every class.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Ordered by Hideyoshi to commit seppuku
21 April 1591

Having fallen from Hideyoshi's favor for reasons still debated, Rikyu was commanded to take his own life and committed ritual suicide in Kyoto on 21 April 1591.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓