“Hideyoshi made a strangled noise, words stifled by his rage. . . . [He] flew down from the dais, the toes of his gold brocade socks flashing over ten green grass mats in a second. Soji’s body was kicked from the corridor like a ball, hitting the stepping stone and rolling into the garden. . . . At the time, Rikyū was still in the tearoom, and knew nothing about it. On his way to see Hideyoshi, to inform him that the tea gathering had concluded successfully, Ōmura Yūki intercepted him and whispered urgently in his ear. But by that time, Soji’s head was already separated from his torso, lying in the corner of the stone wall.” —from Chapter 12 Nogami Yaeko’s compelling novel of political intrigue in sixteenth-century Japan depicts the intertwined lives of two iconic historical figures. Toyotomi Hideyoshi rose through the ranks from a common foot soldier to become the military ruler of Japan but struggled to win respect among the cultured nobility. He found both a friend and an invaluable political advisor in Sen no Rikyū, Japan’s most respected tea master. A wealthy merchant in his own right, Rikyū’s talent for tea ceremony propelled him into the ruler’s court. Deftly balancing Hideyoshi’s love of ostentatious display with the ideals of simplicity and rusticity embodied in the way of tea, Rikyū commands respect from loyal students and court nobles alike. As the story opens, the two men are several years into their friendship, and tensions have begun to build. Hideyoshi pursues his quest to unify Japan, and his ego grows with every victory. Rikyū watches his friends exiled and pardoned according to Hideyoshi’s whims and longs for freedom from the excess and intrigue of court life. Nogami explores the dynamic politics of conquest, the delicate connections of the human soul, and the power of speech and silence in her elegant psychological portrait of two powerful men.

The first comprehensive book-length study in over half a century of the celebrated Japanese tea master Rikyu, considered the father of the Tea Ceremony (cha-no-yu) that fully contextualizes tea in politics, aesthetics, ritual and art

The Japanese tea ceremony blends art with nature and has for centuries brought harmony to the daily life of its practitioners. Stories From a Tearoom Window is a timeless collection of tales of the ancient tea sages, compiled in the eighteenth century. Both longtime adherents and newcomers to the tea ceremony will be fascinated by these legends, anecdotes, bits of lore and history that so aptly express the essence of tea. Many of these stories center around the lives of the great tea masters. First among them is Sen no Rikyu, who perfected the tea ceremony and embodies its poise, modesty and refinement. Among the famous tales recounted here are those of Rikyu's morning glory tea ceremony and of his tragic death. Darker presences of the great warlords Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, who sponsored and also abused Rikyu, are manifest as well. Holding to the tea ceremony's core ideal of natural simplicity, author Shigenori Chikamatsu brings to the page stories which touch on the related arts of ceramics, poetry, Zen, calligraphy, and the origins of everyday items of Japanese life such as the cotton tabi split-toed socks and the bento lunchbox. Chapters include: Tearooms in the Old Days Flowers in the Tea Garden The Origins of Tea Iori's Tea Scoop Famous Lacquerers The Legacy of Rikyu's House The Tea Ceremony for Warriors

"Represents a major advance over previous publications.... Students will find this volume especially useful as an introduction to the primary sources, terminology, and dominant themes in the history of chanoyu." --Journal of Japanese Studies "Tea in Japan illuminates in depth and detail chanoyu's cultural connections and evolution from the early Kamakura period... It is the quality of seeing the familiar and not so familiar elements of tea emerge as a dynamic saga of human invention and cultural intervention that makes this book exhilarating and the details that the authors provide that make these essays fascinating." --Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese

This classic of Japanese cultural studies explains the famous Japanese tea ceremony or cha-no-yu with great scholarship and clarity. In 1933, when A. L. Sadler's imposing book on the Japanese tea ceremony first appeared, there was no other work on the subject in English that even remotely approached it in comprehensiveness or detail. Having attained something of the stature of a classic among studies of Japanese esthetics, it has remained one of the most sought-after of books in this field. It is therefore both a pleasure and a privilege to make it available once again in a complete and unabridged digital version The tea culture book is abundantly illustrated with drawings of tea ceremony furniture and utensils, tearoom architecture and garden design, floor and ground plans, and numerous other features of the cha-no-yu. A number of photographic plates picture famous tea bowls, teahouses, and gardens.

This provoking study of the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu) examines the ideological foundation of its place in history and the broader context of Japanese cultural values where it has emerged as a so-called ‘quintessential’ component of the culture. Sen Soshitsu Xl argued that tea be viewed as the expression of the moral universe of the nation.