500 years after Rikyu's birth, the tearoom is ・・・・
The year 2022 marks the 500th anniversary of Rikyu's birth.
In Rikyu's time, the form of the tea room was almost completed, and tea masters of the time continued to create tea rooms with their own originality and ingenuity. However, it is regrettable that today's tea ceremony rooms are only built based on past copies and tastes, and no innovative tea ceremony rooms have emerged. (There are many innovative tea rooms, however...).
Rikyu was a revolutionary of beauty who was always innovative in the midst of tradition, and even now, 500 years after his birth, he is still very much alive. However, in order to carry on Rikyu's spirit to the next generation and create another 500 years of history, we must become innovative beauty innovators today, or the tradition will die out.

 

Another idea of "Shousoh-An": Turning a tea ceremony room into an office.
Our lives have been transformed by Covid-19. Teleworking has become commonplace, and the office has changed. Until now, it was a place to gather and work, but I believe that in the future it will become a place for business exchange and self-improvement. In this sense, I believe that teahouses will be sought after in offices where teleworkers do not have to come to work and have extra space. If it is an assembly type like "Shousou-An," it can be moved flexibly in accordance with office relocations.

 

In the past, Hideyoshi Toyotomi brought a gold tea ceremony room with him when he attacked Odawara, and Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi adopted the tea ceremony as a place for lobbying instead of a battlefield.
Especially when we entertain our guests from overseas with a cup of tea before a meeting and talk about meditation and the spirit of Zen, it is as if we already have the pieces in place and the business meeting is already set. LOL!

 

In the past, feudal lords, samurai families, and court nobles commissioned the best work without regard for money, and craftsmen went above and beyond what they had in their skills, which is how traditional Japanese techniques have been refined and developed. The younger generation, who are now active in the business world, will take on this role, and this will lead to the development of Japanese culture. In the Meiji Era, people active in the business world, led by Masuda Bungo, enjoyed the tea ceremony and built a culture of their own. Eiichi Shibusawa, who was featured in the historical drama "Seiten wo Chuke," had a tea room called "Mushin'an" in his Asukayama residence, where he held tea ceremonies for political and financial figures. Particularly famous is the July 22, 1905 tea party to which he invited Hirobumi Ito, Kaoru Inoue, Taro Katsura, and Takashi Masuda (O. Buntaka) in order to restore the authority of Prince Yoshinobu Tokugawa.

 

This time, I would like to talk about the tea ceremony room "Shousoh-An" and why it is a tea ceremony room now? We will be regularly discussing tea ceremony rooms in the future.
In the future, we will regularly talk about tearooms, including details, by theme.
Please look forward to it. Thank you very much.

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Tsubaki & Associates

Kuniji Tsubaki