was a Japanese tea master.

Biography

Tsuda Sōgyū belonged to the influential family of merchants of

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

whose business name was Tennōjiya. Together with his father, Tsuda Sōtatsu, he built the Tennōjiya into one of the most prosperous business houses in Sakai. A political tactic he used to accomplish this was by winning the favor of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, who was on the path to hegemony. Around the year 1574, he became one of the three merchant-class tea masters of Sakai to be in charge of ''chanoyu'' (

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 ...

) affairs for Nobunaga; a position referred to as ''chatō'' ("tea head"). The other two were

Imai Sōkyū was a 16th century merchant in the Japanese port town of Sakai, and a master of the tea ceremony. His ''yagō'' was Naya. Biography A relative of the Amago and Sasaki samurai clans, Sōkyū originally came from Yamato Province. After settling ...

and

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on ''chanoyu,'' the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects ...

. Sōgyū was very familiar with

Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later from his title, was a Japanese ''samurai'' general of the Sengoku period best known as the assassin of Oda Nobunaga. Mitsuhide was a bodyguard of Ashikaga Yoshiaki and later a successful general under ...

, so after Nobunaga was killed by the hands of Mitsuhide during the year of 1582, Sōgyū's reputation was wounded. Even though this was true, Nobunaga's avenger and political successor,

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, had all three of Nobunaga's ''chatō'', including Sōgyū, serve him as his own men in charge of tea affairs. Sōgyū attended Hideyoshi's

Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony The Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony (Japanese: 北野大茶湯; ''Kitano ōchanoyu''), also known in English as the Grand Kitano Tea Gathering, was a large Japanese tea ceremony event that was hosted by the regent and chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi at K ...

in the year of 1587. The ''Tennōjiya kaiki'' (天王寺屋会記) record of chanoyu gatherings compiled by three generations of the Tennōjiya mercantile house – Sōgyū's father, Sōtatsu; Sōgyū himself; and Sōgyū's son and heir, Sōbon – is considered one of the most valuable historical resources for learning about the chanoyu of those days. Of the known instances of Sen no Rikyū's participation in chanoyu, Tsuda Sōgyū appears more frequently than any other individual as having shared the time there with Rikyū.

References

* ''Genshoku Chadō Daijiten'' (Japanese encyclopedia of the Way of Tea). Tankosha, 1975. * ''Rikyū Daijiten'' (Japanese encyclopedia about Sen no Rikyū). Tankosha, 1989. 1591 deaths Japanese tea masters Year of birth unknown {{Japan-bio-stub