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The history of Chanoyu

Early Kamakura era, tea was first introduced to Japan by Buddhist priest Eisai(1141-1215) as a medicine. This powdered tea was called Macha, and they were started to be drank by the Buddhist priests as some regions in Japan had started tea cultivation. During the Nanboku era, the competition of guessing the souse of tea or kind of tea called "toucha" became popular, and tea became the leisure pastime of nobility and wealthy. In Muromachi era, typical tea party was held in the room decorated with Chinese art and elegant furniture. As time passed, more humble version of the tea ceremony called Wabicha inspired by the Zen philosophy of simple and quietness was developed. Syukou Murata(1422-1502) learned the way of tea under the Zen priest Ikyu(1394-1481), abbot of Daitoku temple. He adopted the simple Japanese crafts such as Iga and Shinraku for the ceremony instead of using fancy and expensive utensils from China. These style of Tea was called Wabicha. Wabicha was widely accepted by wealthy in Kyoto and Sakai. The tea master Senno Rikyu (1522-1591) who was also from the wealthy in Sakai perfected the style of Wabicha by emphasizing simplicity and quietness in his style of tea. The beauty of simplicity and quietness reflected to the Chashitu or tea things produced by him and people were strongly fascinated by his idea. He also served Shogun, Nobunaga Oda, and then Hideyoshi Toyotomi to coordinate all the important tea ceremonies. The style he produced became the base of Chanoyu today, and gave tremendous influence to the Japanese tea culture.

(Nobuyoshi Mochizuki)