Schools of Japanese tea


"Schools of Japanese tea" refers to the various lines or "streams" of Japanese tea ceremony. The word "schools" here is an English rendering of the Japanese term.

There are three historical households dedicated to developing and teaching the style of tea ceremony developed by Sen no Rikyū, the 16th century tea master from whom they are directly descended. They are known collectively as the, and consist of the Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushakōjisenke schools of tea.
Another line, which was located in Sakai and therefore called the Sakaisenke, was also descended from the original . Rikyū's natural son, Sen no Dōan, took over as head of the Sakaisenke after his father's death, but the Sakaisenke soon disappeared as Dōan had no offspring or successor. The school named Edosenke is not descended by blood from the Sen family; its founder, Kawakami Fuhaku, became a tea master under the 7th generation head of the Omotesenke line, and eventually set up a tea house in Edo, where he devoted himself to developing the Omotesenke style of tea ceremony in Edo.
The arose from the fact that three of the four sons of Genpaku Sōtan inherited or built a tea house, and assumed the duty of passing forward the tea ideals and tea methodology of their great-grandfather, Sen no Rikyū. Kōshin Sōsa inherited Fushin-an and became the head of the Omotesenke line; Sensō Sōshitsu inherited Konnichi-an and became of the Urasenke line; and Ichiō Sōshu built Kankyū-an and became of the Mushakōjisenke line. The names of these three family lines came about from the locations of their estates, as symbolized by their tea houses: the family in the front, the family in the rear, and the family on Mushakōji Street.
The style of tea ceremony considered to have been perfected by Sen no Rikyū and furthered by Sen Sōtan is known as. The have historically championed this manner of tea.
Schools that developed as branches or sub-schools of the, or separately from them, are typically entitled with the suffix, which may be translated as "school" or "style."

As opposed to the manner of tea ceremony, another style of tea ceremony, called exists, the name referring to the manner of tea ceremony practiced by members of the warrior class mainly during the Edo period. In many cases, the of a domain would decide upon a certain official style of tea ceremony, which would be the style practiced in his domain. Generally, tea ceremony teachers were given the responsibility for teaching this style, but there were some who themselves possessed deep knowledge of tea ceremony.
Some of the main styles are the Uraku, Sansai, Oribe, Enshū, Ueda Sōko, Sekishū, Chinshin, Fumai, Ogasawara, and Oie. Among these, the Sekishū, whose founder served as tea ceremony instructor to the, developed a notably large number of branches, and spread widely into warrior society.

Current schools

  • Anrakuan-ryū
  • Chinshin-ryū.The school takes after the "warrior-house style of tea" that was promoted by the Katagiri Sekishū. The school is also known as the Sekishū-ryū Chinshin-ha.
  • Edosenke-ryū
  • Enshū-ryū. One of the foremost disciples of Furuta Oribe, Kobori Enshū was tasked as the official tea instructor for the second and third of the Tokugawa, Hidetada and Iemitsu.
  • Fujibayashi-ryū
  • Fuhaku-ryū. This school, also called the Omotesenke Fuhaku-ryū, evolved after the death of Kawakami Fuhaku, when this faction split from the Edosenke school that he had founded.
  • Hayami-ryū
  • Higo-.One of the schools of tea traditionally followed by members of the old Higo domain, it is considered to be faithful to Sen no Rikyū's tea style, and is somewhat-literally called tea of the "old school". The school has been led by three families, and therefore is divided into the following three branches:
  • *Furuichi-ryū, known also as the Ogasawara .
  • *Kobori-ryū
  • *Kayano-ryū
  • Hisada-ryū
  • Hosokawasansai-ryū
  • Horinouchi-ryū
  • Kobori Enshū-ryū Fuyuko Kobori is the 17th generation head of the .
  • Kogetsu Enshū-ryū Zen Sadō. Watanabe, whose religious name was Kogetsu Taiyo, served as spiritual teacher to Aoyogi Kankō, a student of Enshū-ryū. Kankō, following his teacher's advice, set out to found a new school stressing aspects of spiritual practice. This he named after Watanabe. Among the schools of warrior tea, Kogetsu Enshū-ryū is particularly noted for its simplicity, and for body usage having much in common with martial arts.
  • Matsuo-ryū. The founder of the Matsuo school hailed from Kyoto and learned tea under the 6th Omotesenke, Kakukakusai. He later settled in Nagoya, where the Matsuo school is centered. A number of the successive Matsuo-ryū in history have apprenticed under the "reigning" Omotesenke.
  • Mitani-ryū
  • Miyabi-ryū
  • Nara-ryū
  • Ogasawara . Together with his brother, Furuichi Tanehide became a tea ceremony disciple of Murata Shukō, who is considered the "father" of the style.The Furuichis served as experts for the Ogasawara family, lords of the Kokura fief. They lost their position with the Ogasawaras when the feudal system was abolished, but the Ogasawara's continued to support their. The present head of the Ogasawara is Ogasawara Nagamasa, the 33rd generation in his family, once lords of the Kokura fief. Followers of the Ogasawara are centered in Kokura, and their organization is called the Mitokukai.
  • Oie-ryū. The school traces its roots to Sen no Rikyū, and from Rikyū as follows: Hosokawa Sansai, Ichio Iori, Yonekitsu Michikata, and then Andō Nobutomo. In the Edo period, the Tokugawa allowed the Andō family the right to conduct official celebratory ceremonies, and the family was known as etiquette authorities.
  • Oribe-ryū. According to the Japanese tea historian Tsutsui Hiroichi, after the death of Sen no Rikyū, his follower Furuta Oribe succeeded him as the most influential tea master in the land.Oribe was officer for the second Tokugawa, Tokugawa Hidetada, and had a number of notable disciples, foremost of whom was Kobori Enshū. For political reasons, Oribe was ordered to commit, and consequently his family did not become an official tea-teaching family.Through the succeeding generations, the family head held the position of to the headquartered at Oka Castle in present-day Ōita Prefecture, Kyūshū. With the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, and the family's consequent loss of its hereditary position, the 14th-generation family head, Furuta Sōkan, went to the new capital, Tokyo, to attempt to reestablish the Oribe school of tea. Today, Kyūshū and especially Ōita have the highest concentration of followers of this school.
  • Rikyū-ryū
  • Sakai-ryū
  • Sansō-ryū.
  • Sekishū-ryū. The school developed by the Katagiri Sadamasa, nephew of Katagiri Katsumoto and second-generation lord of the Koizumi Domain. Sekishū was chanoyu teacher to the fourth Tokugawa, Tokugawa Ietsuna, and his style therefore became popular among the feudal ruling class of Japan at the time. The Sekishū-ryū school of was passed forward by his direct descendants, and also through his talented followers who became known as the founders of branches of the Sekishū school.
  • *Sekishū-ryū Chinshin-ha
  • *Sekishū-ryū Fumai-ha.
  • *Sekishū-ryū Ikei-ha. He studied under Katagiri Sekishū. His pupil, Isa Kōtaku, whose family was in charge of the Tokugawa government's tea houses, founded the Sekishū-ryū Isa-ha. Furthermore, the Ikei-ha style that spread among people in Tokyo was referred to as 'Edo Ikei', and that which spread among people in the Echigo region was referred to as 'Echigo Ikei'.
  • *Sekishū-ryū Ōguchi-ha
  • *Sekishū-ryū Shimizu-ha
  • *Sekishū-ryū Sōgen-ha.
  • *Sekishū-ryū Nomura-ha
  • Sōhen-ryū
  • Sōwa-ryū
  • Ueda Sōko-ryū
  • Undenshindō-ryū
  • Uraku-ryū
  • Yabunouchi-ryū. A mix of wabi-cha style and the buke-cha style of Furuta Oribe. Since the school's head family, the Yabunouchi family, is based at Nishinotoin-dori Street, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City, it is commonly called the Lower School, as opposed to the Sansenke schools located in Kamigyo Ward and known as the Upper Schools.
  • Yōken-ryū