SEN RIKYU

born 1522, Sakai, Japan died 1591, Kyoto byname of Sen Soeki Japanese tea master who perfected the tea ceremony and raised it to the level of a national art. Sen Rikyu redefined the tea ceremony in all its aspects: the rules of procedure, the utensils, the teahouse architecture (of which he designed several styles), and even the tea-garden landscaping. He returned to the utter simplicity practiced by Shuko, a 15th-century monk who founded the Japanese tea ceremony. He firmly established the concepts of wabi (deliberate simplicity in daily living) and sabi (roughly, tranquillity) as its aesthetic ideals. During his time the teahouse became smaller (from Shuko's 4 1/2-mat room to a 2-mat roomi.e., 6 feet square [1.8 m square]) and more secluded with the introduction of the small door. The tea bowls produced under his direction were characterized by a rustic simplicity. Rikyu's influence on both artistic standards and social etiquette (his tea school was also a kind of finishing school for soldiers from the provinces) was so great that he has been considered one of the most outstanding figures of Japanese cultural history.