Urasenke


Urasenke is one of the main schools of Japanese tea ceremony. Along with Omotesenke and Mushakōjisenke, it is one of the three lines of the Sen family descending from Sen no Rikyū, which together are known as the san-Senke or the "three Sen houses/families".
The name "Urasenke", literally meaning "rear Sen house/family", came into existence due to the location of the homestead of this line of the Sen family in relation to what was originally the frontmost house of the Sen estate. The other main schools of Japanese tea ceremony, Omotesenke and Mushakōjisenke, also follow this naming convention, with the former meaning "front Sen house/family", and the latter derived from the street name of the family's homestead, Mushakōji.

History

The three Sen houses derive from descendants of Sen no Rikyū, who was active during the Azuchi-Momoyama period period and is the most historically important figure within Japanese tea ceremony.
Rikyū's hometown was Sakai, in the province of Izumi. However, as his activities became centered in Kyoto, he kept a house in Kyoto. He also had his adopted son-in-law, Sen Shōan, who was married to his daughter Okame, move from Sakai to Kyoto, leaving his natural son, Sen Dōan, to tend the family home and business in Sakai. This represents the origin of the two branches of the Sen family referred to as the Sakai-Senke and Kyō-Senke.
The Kyō-Senke, headed by Sen Shōan, eventually settled in a house located on Ogawa Street, in the neighborhood of Honpō-ji temple; the house and property representing the original Sen estate in Kyoto. Following the death of Rikyū, both Sen Dōan of the Sakai-Senke and Sen Shōan of the Kyō-Senke, inevitably caught up in the wrath of Toyotomi Hideyoshi which had been the reason for Rikyū's self-immolation, were in danger of also losing their lives, and so, to protect their homes and families, they went into hiding. After a number of months, however, both were able to return home.
Sen Dōan, still living in Sakai, left no successors to carry on the Sakai-Senke. Sen Shōan, however, upon returning home to Kyoto, already had a son born of himself and Okame, Sen Sōtan, to succeed him as head of the Kyō-Senke.
Sōtan had five offspring: the elder two, Kan'ō Sōsetsu and Ichiō Sōshū, were his sons born of his first wife. However, following her death, Sōtan remarried, having two sons and Sensō Sōshitsu ) and a daughter by his second wife. His first and second sons, Kan'ō Sōsetsu and Ichiō Sōshū, began living independently when they were young men, with his fourth son, Sensō Sōshitsu, also leaving the family as a young man to train as an apprentice under a local doctor named Noma Gentaku. Due to the untimely death of Gentaku, however, Sensō returned home in 1645, and thereafter, with his father Sōtan's support, trained as a chanoyu expert, similarly to his older brother, Kōshin Sōsa, the heir to the family.
Around the year 1646, when Sōtan was roughly 68 years old, he gave up his headship of the family to Kōshin Sōsa, and moved into quarters which had been built at the rear of the house, including a tiny tea hut known as the Konnichian. Sōtan's retirement quarters became Sensō's home base, with Sensō eventually becoming heir to the property.
Sōtan found employment for his eldest son, Ichiō Sōshū, with the Maeda clan clan of the Kaga Domain domain, but Ichiō soon quit his position with the Maeda, leading to Sōtan disinheriting Ichiō. Sōtan's second son, Kan'ō Sōsetsu, had in contrast been adopted by the Yoshioka family in Kyoto, known for specialising in lacquerware under their business name of Yoshimonjiya. During this period, Kan'ō went by the name Yoshioka Kan'uemon. In his later life, however, Kan'ō returned to the Sen family, establishing a tea room named "Kankyuan" at his residence on Mushakōji street, and retrained as a chanoyu expert. With this, the direct descendants of Sen no Rikyū branched into the three lines of both the Sen family and schools of tea ceremony known as the san-Senke today.
Before the Meiji Restoration, the heads of the three families served as chadō magistrates under various daimyō, respectively receiving a yearly stipend from them as payment for their services. Sensō Sōshitsu, fourth son of the family and leader of the branch that would eventually be known as the Urasenke, served the Maeda clan of Kaga. In generations following this, the head of the Urasenke family also served as a chadō magistrate for the Hisamatsu clan of the Iyo domain, as well as serving as caretaker to the clan's Kyoto residence. The eleventh generation head of the family, Gengensai, born as the fifth son of a minor daimyō named Matsudaira Noritomo of the Mikawa Okudono domain, married into the Urasenke family, whilst also serving the Owari branch branch of the Tokugawa family. However, following the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the daimyō lost their positions, and the hereditary stipends which the three Sen families had been receiving came to an end. It was after this, and the loss of their positions serving the daimyō, that the Sen families established their iemoto system.
The entire historical Urasenke estate, located in the Kamigyō-ku ward of Kyoto, is referred to by the name of its representative tea room, the Konnichian.

Headmasters ()

All three major schools of Japanese tea ceremony share their first three generations of headmasters, known as the iemoto. Sen no Rikyū is their mutual first generation and family founder, with his adopted son-in-law, Sen Shōan as their shared second generation iemoto, and Sen Shōan's son, Sen Sōtan, as their shared third generation iemoto.
From the fourth generation onwards, the three family lineages divide, with the heads of each family carrying the professional hereditary name used by the successive heads of their respective family. Upon succession to the position of iemoto of the Urasenke family and its school of chadō, the new iemoto assumes the professional name of Sōshitsu, and is officially referred to as Sen Sōshitsu. The current head of the Urasenke school of tea is Zabōsai Genmoku Sōshitsu, the 16th generation of the family, and is referred to as Sen Sōshitsu XVI.
Generationnamereligious pseudonym
1stSen no Rikyū 利休 宗易Hōsensai抛筌斎
2ndShōan Sōjun 少庵 宗淳--
3rdGenpaku Sōtan 元伯 宗旦Totsutotsusai咄々斎
4thSensō Sōshitsu 仙叟 宗室Rōgetsuan臘月庵
5thJōsō Sōshitsu 常叟 宗室Fukyūsai不休斎
6thTaisō Sōshitsu 泰叟 宗室Rikkansai六閑斎
7thChikusō Sōshitsu 竺叟 宗室Saisaisai最々斎
8thIttō Sōshitsu 一燈 宗室Yūgensai又玄斎
9thSekiō Sōshitsu 石翁 宗室Fukensai不見斎
10thHakusō Sōshitsu 柏叟 宗室Nintokusai認得斎
11thSeichū Sōshitsu 精中 宗室Gengensai玄々斎
12thJikishō Sōshitsu 直叟 宗室Yūmyōsai又玅斎
13thTetchū Sōshitsu 鉄中 宗室Ennōsai圓能斎
14thSekisō Sōshitsu 碩叟 宗室Mugensai無限斎
15thHansō Sōshitsu 汎叟 宗室Hōunsai鵬雲斎
16th Genmoku Sōshitsu 玄黙 宗室Zabōsai坐忘斎

Urasenke Foundation

The Urasenke Foundation is an incorporated foundation originally registered by the Japanese government in 1949, during the era of the 14th generation grand master of Urasenke, Tantansai. Its stated purpose is to preserve and foster the cultural heritage of Urasenke, with its activities including the maintenance and management of the Urasenke estate and cultural assets, and the support of research and public education regarding the study of tea ceremony.
Its administrative office, together with that of the Urasenke Tankōkai Federation, is located within the five story Urasenke Center building located a short distance west of the historical Urasenke compound.

Center

Research Center

Library

Branches

The Urasenke Tokyo Branch was originally established in 1957 in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward, moving to its present quarters in the Ichigaya Kaga-cho section of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward in 1995. This Urasenke facility serves as the hub of the activities sponsored by the Urasenke head house in Japan's capital. Various training courses and special events held at Urasenke Konnichian are also held here, for the convenience of participants living in Eastern Japan. The main building contains replicas of the Totsutotsusai and Kan'untei tea rooms at Konnichian. The Urasenke Tokyo Branch is the only Urasenke branch in Japan.
From the mid-1960s onwards, Sen Sōshitsu XV began to dispatch qualified Urasenke chanoyu instructors to live overseas and, operating out of Urasenke Foundation branch offices or liaison offices, to teach the growing numbers of individuals who desired to pursue the practice of chado. The dates and places to which the teachers were dispatched and thus an Urasenke branch or liaison office was established were as follows:
  • 1966, September. Hawaii, and Boston
  • 1967, September. New York
  • 1969, August. Rome, Italy
  • 1972, June. Munich, Germany, when Urasenke donated a tea house named "Kanshoan"
  • 1973, February. Mexico
  • 1973, August. Hilo, Hawaii
  • 1974, March. Brisbane, Australia
  • 1974, November. Peru
  • 1976, April. London, England; Düsseldorf, Germany; and Paris, France
  • 1976, August. Brazil
  • 1980, December. San Francisco, California
  • 1981, February. Seattle, Washington
  • 1986, May. Schwarzwald, Germany
  • 1991, March. Moscow, Russia
  • 1991, May. Beijing, China
  • 1992, August. Tianjin, China
  • 1993, April. Vancouver, Canada
  • 1993, August. Sydney, Australia
  • 1994, September. Washington D.C.
  • 1997, April. '''Netherlands'''