(1546 – October 10, 1614) was a Japanese
tea ceremony master, and is distinguished in Japanese cultural history as the second generation in the Sen family tradition of
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...
founded by his father-in-law,
Sen no Rikyū. His father was Miyaō Saburō, who was a resident of
Sakai and was a master at playing the Japanese hand drum (''tsuzumi''). Circumstantial evidence indicates that Miyaō Saburō probably died around the year 1553. Shōan's mother, the wife of Miyaō Saburō, was known as Sōon. She became the second wife of
Sen no Rikyū. Shōan was adopted into the Sen family and became the son-in-law of Rikyū when he married Rikyū's daughter Okame. The oldest boy born between Shōan and Okame was
Sen Sōtan
Sen may refer to:
Surname
* Sen (surname), a Bengali surname
* Şen, a Turkish surname
* A variant of the Serer patronym Sène
Currency subunit
* Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies:
** ...
, the third generation in the Sen family tradition of Japanese tea ceremony.
Shōan was the same age as Rikyū's oldest son,
Sen Dōan
Sen may refer to:
Surname
* Sen (surname), a Bengali surname
* Şen, a Turkish surname
* A variant of the Serer patronym Sène
Currency subunit
* Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies:
** ...
, but his skill at
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...
was much more highly reputed than was Dōan's. Rikyū left the Sen estate in Sakai for Dōan, and had Shōan and family set up a new Sen household in Kyoto. The exact year of the move is unknown, but it represented the origin of the so-called Kyoto Sen Family (Kyō-Senke), which evolved into the present san-Senke (lit., three Sen houses/families) (see
Schools of Japanese tea ceremony).
Following Rikyū's
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
(ritual suicide) by order of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Kyoto property where Shōan and family resided was confiscated. Shōan went to Aizu Wakamatsu (present-day Fukushima Prefecture) where he lived under the protection of the warrior
Gamō Ujisato. Some years later, Hideyoshi pardoned the Sen family and arranged for the restoration of the Kyoto household. Sen Dōan in Sakai, similarly, was pardoned and allowed to reestablish the Sen household in Sakai, but that household eventually died out, as Dōan had no successor. When the Kyoto Sen household was reestablished, it was decided between Hideyoshi and Shōan that Sōtan, Rikyū's blood descendant who had been living as a young Buddhist trainee at
Daitoku-ji temple during this period of family upheaval, should become acting head of the family. It is believed that Shōan therefore retired early and moved to a small cottage called Shōnantei at Saihōji temple (see
Kokedera), in western Kyoto.
[Tsutsui Hiroichi, "Sen Sotan," in Chanoyu Quarterly no. 46 (1986)]
References
*
Daijirin, 2nd Ed.
*
Kōjien, 5th Ed.
1546 births
1614 deaths
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