Sen Sotan was Rikyu's grandson and the third head of the Sen house. By establishing four of his sons independently he created the origins of Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushakojisenke. He is regarded as the legitimate inheritor of Rikyu's spirit and as the person who protected the purity of wabi tea.
Life
Said to have spent his childhood at Daitoku-ji, he acquired a grounding in Zen before devoting himself to restoring the Sen house. Taking over as head after his grandfather's death, he chose throughout his life not to enter daimyo service, and is said to have kept to wabi tea in deliberate poverty — hence the nickname "beggar Sotan".
Influence on tea
He refused ostentation and made the plainness of the utensils and the host's own intention the subject of the practice. He is associated with the extreme reduction of the one-and-three-quarter-mat room. His main achievement was structural: turning the transmission of Rikyu's wabi into something a household could carry to the next generation.
Sources
- 千宗旦（デジタル大辞泉 / 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 / 百科事典マイペディア） / コトバンク
Supports: 「乞食宗旦」の異名を持つこと。子の宗左・宗室・宗守を分家させて表千家・裏千家・武者小路千家の基礎を築いたこと（没年は辞典により1658年・1659年と分かれる）
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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.
- Sen DoanSen Doan
Rikyu's eldest son (1546–1607), who succeeded to the Sakai Sen house; the line ended after him.
- Sen ShoanSen Shoan
Rikyu's adopted son (1546–1614), who revived the Sen house in Kyoto; all three present schools descend from him.