Matsudaira Fumai — Matsudaira Harusato, seventh lord of the Matsue domain in Izumo — is the representative early modern daimyo collector, known for assembling and cataloguing celebrated utensils. He is widely referred to as Fumai-ko.
Life
Becoming lord while young, he restored the domain's finances through administrative reform while investing enormously in tea. Studying within the Sekishu-ryu lineage, he established his own Fumai-ryu.
Influence on tea
He compiled the *Unshu Kuracho*, a record of the transmission of great and revived masterpieces, and in doing so organised the ranking and provenance of early modern tea utensils — a contribution difficult to overstate, since much of what is now taken as settled attribution runs through it. Many of the pieces he gathered are still prized as "Fumai-ko utensils".
Legacy
His collecting and cataloguing form the basis of modern scholarship on tea utensils, and Matsue remains a city where tea culture is unusually deeply rooted.
Sources
- 松平不昧（ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典） / コトバンク
Supports: 松平不昧（本名・松平治郷）の生没年が宝暦1年（1751年）～文政1年（1818年）であること。石州流に練達し不昧流の基をなしたこと。著書『古今名物類聚』があること
About this article
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Term info
- Life dates
- 1751–1818
- Category
- Term
Related terms
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The Japanese practice of preparing and serving powdered green tea, treated as a lifelong discipline rather than a beverage ritual.
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Finding sufficiency of mind within insufficiency and plainness; one of the root concepts of tea practice.
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The principle that every gathering is unrepeatable, and should therefore be treated as if it will never occur again.
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The mid-Edo tea master (1719–1807) who carried Omotesenke's tea from the Kansai region to Edo.
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The late-Tokugawa statesman (1815–1860) whose Chanoyu Ichie Shu gave ichigo ichie its lasting formulation.