April 21, 1591, a dark night. It was pouring rain outside, thunder and lightning. A small mansion in Kyoto, Japan, was now surrounded by 3,000 elite regiments.
In the mansion surrounded by 3,000 soldiers, there were no heinous people, but a tea ceremony master, Qian Lixiu. It was none other than him who sent out three thousand soldiers, it was none other than his former friend, the Japanese Sengoku period warlord "Toyotomi Hideyoshi".
▲Image of Hideyoshi Kano Mitsunobusho
In such a way that the laborers dealt with a tea ceremony master, there was no rebellion to meet each other, what hatred and resentment did Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Senritsu have between them?
Everything has to start from the Japanese tea ceremony, the Japanese obsessed with tea is deeply influenced by China, tea was brought back to Japan by the monks along with the Tang Dynasty culture, at first only as a medicinal material, and later, with the rise of Tang culture in Japan's upper class, tea culture also spread among samurai.
The Japanese Zen master Murata Zhuguang combined tea sets from the Tang Dynasty with native Japanese tea sets, introducing the folk Japanese song "Cold Dry" in the tea ceremony. Subsequently, Takeno Shoou, a re-disciple of Zhu Guang, developed a tea ceremony with the artistic conception of "dry and cold" on the basis of the original. Later, Shi Chengshao Ou's Senritsuki gathered the strengths of the two and combined the tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism to achieve the prototype of today's Japanese tea ceremony, which is a symbol of the Japanese spirit and pins on the aesthetic tastes and moral concepts of the Japanese people.
In Japan's ancient high society, tea drinking by the aristocratic and general classes was a popular trend, but also a symbol of status and status, and later the so-called doucha rose: a large number of tea utensils and works of art from the Tang and Song dynasties, which came to Japan across the ocean, were expensive, and everyone was proud to have one.
Oda Nobunaga, one of the three masters of the Warring States, adopted a "limited number" for the tea ceremony, and only courtiers who had established outstanding merits could carry out the tea ceremony and reward them with valuable tea sets. The Yao changing Tianmu tea bowl he once owned, only three survived, and is currently worth 1.6 billion yen, which is a rare treasure!
This Tang eggplant tea (a utensil used to store tea powder) was once owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and was worth 100 million yen during the Sengoku period five hundred years ago!
Oda Nobunaga loves tea ceremonies and likes to collect the world's most expensive tea sets, and invites famous tea makers from all over the world to perform tea ceremonies. Imai Munehisa, Tsuda Munakata, and Senritsu, the three tea heads under him, are known as the three tea ceremony masters in Sakai.
Born into a merchant family, Senritsu studied tea ceremony since childhood, and at the age of 18 he studied under Takeno Shogo. Inchiru has a high degree of aesthetic ability and appreciation, is extremely good at tea ceremony, and is the leader of the three Oda Nobunaga's men.
▲Oda Nobunaga
During the Sengoku period, Japan rose up in unison, and wars continued. Oda Nobunaga was also defeated by a small daimyo and eventually took control of half of Japan. In 1582, just as he was plotting to unify the country, Nobunaga was buried in the fire of Honnoji Temple in Kyoto, not wanting his vassal Mitsuhide to rebel.
▲The change of Honnoji Temple
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also a vassal of Nobunaga at the beginning, with a low status. After Nobunaga's death, he annexed various territories one after another, becoming more and more powerful, and competed with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and no one was able to eliminate anyone.
Inheriting Oda Nobunaga's industry, as a generation of tyrants, he has a long-term vision, thinking that if he wants to achieve a generation of hegemony, he must be indispensable to Senritsu, plus he also loves the tea ceremony, so he uses Senritsu a lot and slowly becomes his confidant.
▲Sen no Rikyu
In 1586, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu held peace talks in Osaka, and Tokugawa Ieyasu brought 10,000 troops to the scene, while Toyotomi Hideyoshi was surprised and only brought Senritsu to greet him, meaning to give the other side a broad mind.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought with him Senritsu, who had been a vassal of Oda Nobunaga, with a clear intention: I have inherited everything from Nobunaga, and I am the orthodox. Eventually, Tokugawa Ieyasu laid down his arms and submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the two sides reconciled.
In 1587, he hosted the Kitano Grand Tea Party initiated by Hideyoshi, which was said to have been attended by more than 1,500 people for ten days, and the grandeur was unprecedented, and Senritsu's reputation also reached its peak, and he was known as "the world's first teamaker".
There is also a very interesting little story between them. There was a midsummer when everyone was praising the beauty of the morning glory of the Senritsu family. Hideyoshi, who loves to join in the fun, naturally will not miss this opportunity, "I will go to your place tomorrow to admire the flowers, please prepare it." ”
Early the next morning, Hideyoshi arrived at Ritsuki's house with great interest. When walking through the tea garden, Hideyoshi was surprised to find that there was not a single flower here, very angry, and said where the good flowers had gone, and later when he walked into Lee's tea room, he suddenly found a morning glory flower. In the small, dim tea room, a beam of light shone through the window on the morning glory, which bloomed so beautifully and so lonely.
For an instant, Hideyoshi felt the beauty of the dead silence that could not be felt from the flowers in the garden. It turned out that Qianlixiu had deliberately removed all the morning glory flowers in the tea garden the night before, leaving only this branch and inserting it in the tea room, and it turned out that Qianlixiu was the Zen meaning he wanted to express.
Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated many opponents and became Lord Sekibai, who indulged in the meat forest of the sake pond every day, and for a time the power of Japan was tilted, and the emperor became a puppet. He restored a strict hierarchy to his subordinates, and if the territory was slightly submissive, he would wave his army to fight.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who liked extravagance, built a golden tea room, tea set, and even the ceiling, walls, and tatami mats were all made of gold, and I am afraid that only a genius, a geek, and a psychologically twisted pervert like Hideyoshi would come up with it.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi also offered tea to Emperor Masanomachi in the golden tea room to show that he was the true ruler of Japan. Seeing Hideyoshi's growing ambitions, Senritsu built a tea room called "Waiting For", in order to warn Hideyoshi not to be in a hurry, and to cultivate obscurity.
The entrance to the temple is not a door, but just a small opening slightly larger than the dog hole, whether it is the imperial relatives or ordinary people who enter the tea room, they must bow their knees and bow their heads into the tea room, without exception, implying that all visitors, even the most powerful people, have to bow and feel equal to others. There is a sword holder at the entrance of the tea room, and the samurai regard it as the sword of life, and it must be untied at this point, and Hideyoshi, who often comes to the temple, thinks it is a very unreasonable request.
Unlike Hideyoshi, Senritsu opposed the use of expensive tea sets, and he set off a tea ceremony revolution, advocating the use of rustic black pottery and bamboo teaspoons instead of ivory teaspoons.
Expensive porcelain that used to be used for flower arrangement was replaced by him with a fish cage woven with bamboo.
Qian Lixiu wanted the world to be equal, and he made the tea ceremony interesting and popularized it to ordinary people, hoping that sentient beings would purify their hearts in tea tasting and return to the simple and silent Zen path. It is conceivable that Hideyoshi, who likes extravagance, does not like such a tea room, and also hates black tea bowls, and the gap between the two is getting bigger and bigger.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became increasingly arrogant and arrogant, only Senritsu dared to speak out, but the two also went from close friends to fatal antagonism.
In 1591, just four years after the Kitano Tea Party, Ritsugu donated a mountain gate to Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, the Golden Retriever Pavilion, and daitoku-ji Temple, in gratitude to the benefactor, placed a wooden statue of Ritsugu on the Golden Retriever Pavilion, dressed in robes and stepping on straw shoes. As a result, this trivial matter infuriated Hideyoshi, you Li Xiu something, is everyone who crosses the mountain gate going to pass under your straw shoes? The subtext is that I am going to pass under your stinky straw shoes as well?
Senritsu was then exiled, and his friend tried to intercede through Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife, but Senritsu refused. Hideyoshi also ordered someone to send a message that as long as he handed over the porcelain jar in his hand, even if he surrendered, he would not be blamed for the past, and Senritsu replied, "The only thing that can make me bow my head is beautiful things."
On the rainy night of April 21 of the same year, the 70-year-old Senritsu committed suicide by cutting his stomach in the form of a samurai under the joint attention of three thousand people.
There are several theories about the death of Senritsu, and there are several theories in history: some people think that Senritsu has always sold ordinary tea utensils at high prices as a businessman, and there is a suspicion of enriching his own pockets, which has caused Hideyoshi's dissatisfaction; some people think that the reason lies in Senritsu's daughter, who returned to her mother's house after divorce, Hideyoshi fell in love with her at first sight, and wanted her as a concubine but was opposed by Senritsu, Hideyoshi held a grudge, and so on.
In the end, the wooden statue was beheaded, Qianlixiu was given death, and a generation of tea saints fought with death to maintain their dignity.
Source: iQIYI Xiaosong Qitan
Some of the graphic information in this article is based on the film "In Search of Qianlixiu"