Murata Juko was a late-Muromachi tea master who set the plain, small-room practice of wabi tea against the showy competitive tea of the shoin style. He is the first figure to establish the interior dimension of the practice, and stands at the beginning of the line that leads to Rikyu.
Life
After becoming a monk at Shomyo-ji in Nara, he practised Zen under Ikkyu Sojun in Kyoto. He hung the calligraphy of Yuanwu Keqin, given to him by Ikkyu, in the alcove of his tea room, bringing the spirit of Zen into tea. He was also involved in shoin-style tea as an associate of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, and later devised the four-and-a-half-mat thatched room that gave wabi tea its form.
Influence on tea
The phrase attributed to him — "like tethering a fine horse to a thatched hut" — captures the aesthetic of combining plain surroundings with a distinguished object, and it points forward to everything wabi tea later did. The tradition of making calligraphy the principal object in a tea room also begins with Juko.
Sources
- 村田珠光（デジタル大辞泉 / 日本大百科全書 / ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典） / コトバンク
Supports: 村田珠光の生没年が1423年～1502年（文亀2年5月15日）であること。侘び茶の創始者・茶道の開祖とされ、一休宗純に参禅して「茶禅一味」の境地を会得したとされること
About this article
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Term info
- Life dates
- 1423–1502
- Category
- Term
Related terms
- Chado (The Way of Tea)chado
The Japanese practice of preparing and serving powdered green tea, treated as a lifelong discipline rather than a beverage ritual.
- Wabiwabi
Finding sufficiency of mind within insufficiency and plainness; one of the root concepts of tea practice.
- Ichigo ichie (one time, one meeting)ichigo ichie
The principle that every gathering is unrepeatable, and should therefore be treated as if it will never occur again.
- MyoeMyoe
The monk (1173–1232) who cultivated Eisai's tea seeds at Toganoo, establishing tea growing in Japan.
- Ikkyu SojunIkkyu Sojun
The Zen monk (1394–1481) whose transmission to Murata Juko founded the link between Zen and tea.
- Takeno JooTakeno Joo
The Sakai merchant tea master (1502–1555) who deepened wabi tea through classical poetry, and taught Rikyu.