The Japanese Spiritual Worldview

Chapter Four

The Way of Tea — Hospitality and Wabi

第四章 — 茶の湯・もてなしと侘び

Introduction — Setting Down the Sword, Facing a Single Bowl

The bushidō of the previous chapter was an ethics that honed the Zen spirit to its utmost upon the field of battle, next to death. What we depict in this chapter is a world born of that same Zen, yet turned in the very opposite direction — away from battle, toward the most serene beauty. The way of tea.

Curiously, the warlords of an age of war set down their swords and entered the tea room. In days when their lives were in peril, they sought, through a single serving of tea, a peace of heart — the state of anjin ritsumei, the settled mind.1 In a place at the opposite pole from bushidō, yet harbouring the same Zen spirit, the way of tea built one of the summits of the Japanese sense of beauty.

This chapter is the third axis of this essay: the completion of wabi-tea, from Murata Jukō to Sen no Rikyū; wabi and sabi, the very summit of Japanese beauty; and the spirit of "one encounter in a lifetime." Here the "subtraction" of Zen, seen in the second chapter, crystallises into its most refined form of beauty. That form we wish to depict.

I. The Lineage of Wabi-Tea — A Deepening across Three Generations

Tea itself, as touched upon in the first chapter, was brought to Japan with Zen in the Kamakura period. But its deepening into the singular spiritual culture of the "way of tea" came only from the Muromachi period onward.

At first, tea was a tool of vanity, by which the powerful and the wealthy merchants flaunted costly karamono — prized objects come from China — and vied in lavishness.2 Three tea men reversed this current.

The first was Murata Jukō (1423–1502), a monk of the mid-Muromachi period.3 In a hermitage he built among the fields of Nara, Jukō used a kettle with a cracked lid and tea bowls bearing repairs, and served tea to those who came.4 Turning his back on the fashion that prized costly karamono, he found beauty precisely in the simple and the imperfect — and this became the starting point of "wabi-tea."45 Jukō practised Zen under the Zen monk Ikkyū Sōjun, and taught cha-zen ichimi — that tea and Zen are one.6

The second was Takeno Jōō (1502–1555), a merchant of Sakai.7 Jōō brought into the way of tea the sense of lingering resonance he had cultivated in waka poetry, adding literary shadow and refinement to wabi-tea.78 Jukō opened the concept; Jōō polished it into an aesthetic. He was an important joint who put Jukō's thought into a form that could be handed to the next age.8

And the third, Jōō's disciple Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), brought wabi-tea to its completion.9 He carried tea room, utensils and procedure all thoroughly in the direction of simplicity, and completed the spirit and aesthetic of "wabi-tea" that continue to this day.9

II. The Beauty of Subtraction — From Karamono to the Grass Hut

The essence of the way of tea that Rikyū completed was the very "subtraction" of Zen seen in the second chapter.

Where tea until then had been "addition" — buying costly utensils, decking the room with furnishings, piling up lavishness — wabi-tea was a thoroughgoing "subtraction."10 Rikyū pared away everything showy. The tea room shrank from the great hall to a small sōan, a "grass hut" of two or three mats.11 The walls became earthen, ornament was cut away, and the guest, bending low, crawled into the room through a low nijiriguchi, a "crawling-in entrance."9 In place of costly porcelain, plain earthen bowls were used.9

The black Raku bowls Rikyū had the artisan Chōjirō fire were, in their day, seen as plain and crude.12 Why use such humble vessels at a gathering of hospitality? — Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it is said, was at a loss to understand.12 But there, precisely, lay Rikyū's aesthetic. A quiet antithesis to Hideyoshi's gorgeous beauty, which spoke through the power of wealth. A beauty seen not with the "eye" but with the "heart" — that was Rikyū's wabi.13

One does not grow rich by adding. By paring away the superfluous, one grows rich instead. In the all-but-empty grass-hut tea room, a single hanging scroll and a few flowers cut from the garden are the only adornment — and within that simplicity rises an infinite richness.9 This is the very same spirit as the "subtraction" of the dry garden and the "empty space" of ink painting, seen in the second chapter. The aesthetic of subtraction that flowed out of Zen was, in the way of tea, raised into an art of the space in which one receives a guest.

III. Wabi and Sabi — The Beauty of the Imperfect

The words that express the aesthetic this way of tea crystallised are "wabi" and "sabi."

"Wabi" and "sabi" were, in origin, two separate words.14 "Wabi" was a word that once carried negative meaning — "to be downcast," "shabby."14 "Sabi" meant "to grow old," "to fade."14 Yet these negative words, passing through the medieval age, turned over into the very opposite value.

To find, within deficiency, a fullness of heart instead. To feel, within shabbiness, a deep savour. To see, within the aged and the faded, the weight of time and a beauty — "wabi-sabi" became a singular Japanese aesthetic that honours this "beauty of deficiency," this "beauty of the imperfect."1415 It is a sensibility that feels the fleetingness of the human world, the passing impermanence, to be beautiful rather than sad; it is said to lie close to the state of awakening, and to be a central thought of Japanese culture.14

Here the "impermanence" of the first chapter sounds again, deeply. All things pass; nothing is complete; nothing is eternal — and rather than lament this fact, one finds beauty precisely in the imperfect, the fleeting, the passing.15 Wabi-sabi was the sublimation of the sense of time that is impermanence into an aesthetic. In the Meiji era, Okakura Tenshin expressed this spirit in The Book of Tea as "the worship of the imperfect," and conveyed it to the world.15 Today "Wabi-Sabi" passes, untranslated, into English — a concept of beauty known across the world.15

IV. One Encounter in a Lifetime — The Single, Once-Only Now

Another spirit the way of tea harbours is "one encounter in a lifetime" (ichigo ichie).

These words are often rendered "an encounter that comes but once in a life." But their true meaning goes a step deeper. The meeting of host and guest at a tea gathering is never repeated in exactly the same form. The same faces, the same utensils, the same flowers, the same state of heart — this single instant, in which all of these come together, is one that occurs but once in a lifetime. And for that very reason, the host pours into this single serving every device and care he can conceive, and the guest, too, answers that heart with the whole of his being.16

Here lies the heart of the way of tea. Host and guest, through a single serving of tea, commune in heart and become one — this is called ichiza konryū, the "raising-up of one gathering."16 And this spirit is deeply kin to what we saw in the second and third chapters. To face the single instant of the "here and now" with the whole body (Zen). To live the now completely, precisely because tomorrow's life is unknown (bushidō). The "one encounter in a lifetime" of the way of tea is the crystallisation of this "here and now" within the realm of hospitality and beauty.

In an age of war, the tea room was a "peaceful island," its ties to the outer world cut away.9 Passing through the low entrance, leaving the floating world behind, one gives one's whole heart to a single serving of tea and to the one before one's eyes. Within that serene time, Japanese spiritual culture found its most refined form of beauty.

Conclusion — Binding the Aesthetic Together

What we have seen in this chapter is the third axis of this essay — the way of tea.

The wabi-tea deepened across the three generations of Jukō, Jōō and Rikyū raised the "subtraction" of Zen into an art of the space in which one receives a guest. The "wabi-sabi" it crystallised was a singular Japanese aesthetic that sublimated impermanence into beauty, and "one encounter in a lifetime" was a spirit that lives the "here and now" in its most refined form.

Thus far we have followed three axes — Zen, bushidō, the way of tea. And, looking back, a common thread running through all of them comes into view. Subtraction. Simplicity. Empty space. The here and now. The heart that holds what passes tender. These appeared, in changed form, in each of the three axes.

In the next chapter, at last, we draw out that common thread itself. We wish to enter the core of the Japanese aesthetic that flows through Zen, through bushidō, and through the way of tea alike — ma (the interval), mu (nothingness), and yohaku (empty space). It is the deepest principle of beauty, running beneath every domain of Japanese culture, beyond any single axis.

Notes & Sources

This is the fourth chapter of the white paper "The Japanese Spiritual Worldview." The facts stated rest on the sources cited. We note the view that the very term "ichigo ichie" was not Rikyū's own direct words, but was formulated in a later age (Ii Naosuke's Chanoyu Ichie-shū, etc., at the close of the Edo period). Interpretations of wabi-sabi vary; this essay rests on a general understanding centred on the way of tea. It treats the way of tea not as guidance in school or procedure but from the side of the Japanese sense of beauty and spiritual culture. Primary sources (the Nanpōroku, The Book of Tea, etc.) will be reinforced in future revisions.

Footnotes

  1. "The Beauty of 'Hospitality' and 'Setting': The Heart of the Way of Tea," JR West (on the warlords of an age of war, their lives in peril, taking up wabi-tea in search of anjin ritsumei, the settled mind; and on ichiza konryū expressing the oneness of host and guest). https://www.westjr.co.jp/company/info/issue/bsignal/13_vol_147/issue/01.html ↩

  2. "A History of Japanese Tea: Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama Periods," Far East Tea Company (on tea shifting from tea-competitions and the flaunting of karamono to a way of tea encompassing Zen, waka and hospitality, the change from shoin tea to wabi-tea as the axis). https://fareastteacompany.com/ja/blogs/fareastteaclub/history-of-japanese-tea-muromachi-and-azuchi-momoyama-periods ↩

  3. "Cultural History 21: The Tea of Kyoto," City of Kyoto (on the way of tea founded by Murata Jukō [1423–1502], refined by Takeno Jōō [1502–55], and brought to completion by Sen no Rikyū [1522–91], flourishing from Momoyama to early Edo). https://www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/somu/rekishi/fm/nenpyou/htmlsheet/bunka21.html ↩

  4. "A History of the Way of Tea," Kawakami Yukio (on Murata Jukō, in a hermitage in Nara, using a kettle with a cracked lid and repaired bowls to serve visitors, this style being the prototype of the way of tea and the founding of wabi-tea). https://note.com/kominkanist/n/n114c2065c4ea ↩ ↩2

  5. "A History of Japanese Tea," Far East Tea Company (on Murata Jukō, while honouring fine karamono, valuing spirituality over display, his vision of finding beauty in simple spaces and imperfect vessels being the starting point of wabi-tea). https://fareastteacompany.com/ja/blogs/fareastteaclub/history-of-japanese-tea-muromachi-and-azuchi-momoyama-periods ↩

  6. "Wabi-Sabi," Wikipedia (on Murata Jukō being a Jōdo-school monk who practised Zen under the Rinzai monk Ikkyū Sōjun and touched Zen, teaching the oneness of Zen and tea — cha-zen ichimi). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/わび・さび ↩

  7. "A History of the Way of Tea," Kawakami Yukio (on Takeno Jōō, a Sakai merchant who studied waka and brought its state of mind into the way of tea, and who trained Sen no Rikyū). https://note.com/kominkanist/n/n114c2065c4ea ↩ ↩2

  8. "On Takeno Jōō, the Cultured Man Who Completed Wabi-Tea," Far East Tea Company (on Jōō inheriting and deepening Jukō's wabi-tea and bridging to Rikyū's completion; on his bringing the sense of linked verse and waka to add literary shadow to wabi-tea; and on the three-generation lineage Jukō → Jōō → Rikyū). https://fareastteacompany.com/ja/blogs/fareastteaclub/people-related-to-japanese-tea-takeno-joo ↩ ↩2

  9. "Sen no Rikyū, the Tea Sage," Sazen Tea (on Rikyū carrying tea room, utensils and procedure thoroughly toward simplicity to complete wabi-tea; on his building small grass-hut tea rooms with thatched roofs and plaster walls, using plain earthenware and natural utensils; and on passing through the low entrance, cutting off the outer world, making a "peaceful island" in an age of war). https://www.sazentea.com/jp/blog/portrait/chasei-sen-no-rikyu-wabi-cha-ni-sasageta-haran-no-shogai.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  10. "What is the Meaning of Wabi-Sabi?," kenyu.red (on "deficiency / inconvenience" being a key word in the way of tea; on a world of richness felt precisely through deficiency — that subtracting makes one rich; and on Jukō and Jōō being men who thought by subtraction). https://kenyu.red/archives/3182.html ↩

  11. "A History of Japanese Tea," Far East Tea Company (on Sen no Rikyū, in the era of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, carrying through a tea of small rooms, the nijiriguchi, and restrained utensils). https://fareastteacompany.com/ja/blogs/fareastteaclub/history-of-japanese-tea-muromachi-and-azuchi-momoyama-periods ↩

  12. "Wabi-Sabi: A Clear Explanation of Its Meaning!," Noh and Kyōgen (on the black bowls Rikyū had fired being seen, in their day, as plain and unremarkable, and on Toyotomi Hideyoshi being at a loss to understand why such humble bowls were used at gatherings of hospitality). https://noh-kyogen.jp/wabisabi-design-476 ↩ ↩2

  13. "What is the Spirit of Wabi-Sabi Rikyū Wished to Convey?," wabi-sabi.info (on Rikyū's wabi as a possible antithesis to Hideyoshi's beauty that spoke through wealth, and on a beauty seen with the "heart" rather than the "eye" being the wabi Rikyū wished to convey). https://wabi-sabi.info/archives/167 ↩

  14. "Wabi-Sabi," Wikipedia (on wabi and sabi being originally separate words, wabi of negative origin — "to be downcast / shabby" — and sabi "to grow old / fade"; and on their turning over into an aesthetic that sees beauty within deficiency and imperfection, a central thought of Japanese culture close to awakening that feels impermanence to be beautiful). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/わび・さび ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  15. "Sen no Rikyū, the Tea Sage," Sazen Tea / "The Meaning of Ichigo Ichie," President (on wabi-sabi as a "beauty of the imperfect," a thought that admits nothing eternal, complete or perfect; on Okakura Tenshin recording in The Book of Tea that "the root of the way of tea lies in the worship of the imperfect" and spreading it to the world; and on "Wabi-Sabi" passing into English). https://www.sazentea.com/jp/blog/portrait/chasei-sen-no-rikyu-wabi-cha-ni-sasageta-haran-no-shogai.html / https://president.jp/articles/-/65915 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. "The Beauty of 'Hospitality' and 'Setting': The Heart of the Way of Tea," JR West (on ichiza konryū expressing the oneness of host and guest in the way of tea; on the spirit of wabi-tea by which the host, devising every care, receives the guest for a single serving of tea; and on host and guest communing, through that serving, in the heart of ichigo ichie). https://www.westjr.co.jp/company/info/issue/bsignal/13_vol_147/issue/01.html ↩ ↩2