About Chado
Introduction
Brief Tea Drinking History in Japan
Sen Rikyu
The Urasenke Tradition
After Rikyu’s death in 1591, not only did his family continue to practice Rikyu’s way of serving powdered green tea, but some of Rikyu’s disciples also started their own lineages. The direct descendants of Rikyu are the Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushanokoji-senke traditions of Chado.
All three Sen family schools continued Rikyu’s path of learning Chado by studying both Chado and Zen, and the family traditions are handed down to each generation’s eldest male. This system of preserving the eldest male as the leader of a specific family’s tradition, the Iemoto system, has kept many of the Japanese traditional arts alive throughout radical changes in Japanese history. Each generation not only keeps the family’s tradition alive, but also addresses the unique problems of the times.
In the late nineteenth century, after the feudal system collapsed (along with much of the patronage of the traditional arts), the Urasenke Iemoto (or "Grand Tea Master" in English) introduced Chado to the national school system as a means of preserving Japan’s cultural heritage. This was the first time that the study of Chado was available for all women.
Today, the Urasenke headquarters in Kyoto houses not only the Sen family and a very busy study center, but also a museum, a university, a book publishing company, and is the center for the Tanko Tea Teachers Association, one of the largest cultural associations in Japan. Outside of Japan, Urasenke has established some 80 study centers in 30 countries.
The Urasenke Foundation was established in 1949. Although Chado is a Japanese accomplishment, at its heart is a set of values and concepts that can be understood and practiced by anybody, regardless of nationality. The Foundation has donated tea houses, gardens, tea utensils and reference materials to numerous cities, universities, museums, and other institutions. Further, it has published numerous materials about Chado in English, has trained and dispatched teachers to operate branch offices in 15 countries. In addition, there are membership chapters of the Tanko Tea Teachers Association located throughout the world.
This web-site aims to introduce the fundamental concepts of Urasenke Tradition of Tea, and does not offer in-depth information. However, the links section of this web-site can guide you to other sources of more detailed information.