The *Chanoyu Ichie Shu* was written by Ii Naosuke (1815–1860), lord of Hikone in the late Tokugawa period, and is the text through which the idea of ichigo ichie was systematically set out. Its importance is in articulating clearly, as a practitioner's discipline, the resolve to exhaust a gathering as a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
Composition
Ii had a serious grounding in tea within the Sekishu-ryu lineage, and left this work alongside the *Kanya Sawa*, written in his youth. The phrase ichigo ichie already appears in the *Yamanoue Soji Ki*; Ii's contribution was to systematise it as a discipline binding both host and guest, and thereby to establish it as one of the representative principles of modern tea practice.
What it says
Its central passage holds that even when the same host and guests meet again, today's gathering cannot be repeated. The claim is not that gatherings are rare but that this one imposes a duty of complete attention on everyone present.
About this article
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