"The Way of Tea" school

The tradition of The Way of Tea of the Urasenke school is based on principles that were formulated by the greatest Tea Master Sen no Rikyu (Soeki). After his death, to which he had been sentenced under unclear circumstances by the contemporary Japanese emperor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Sen dynasty had been afflicted by violent break-up. Fortunatelly, after some time it was possible to put through its rehabilitation and the Master's foster son Shoan (Sojun) was given permission to take his father's possessions to the place called Ogawa (near Honpoji Temple in Kyoto) and teach the way of tea there. Later the lead was taken over by Sotan, a putative son of the Master Shoan and his wife Okane, Master Rikyu's daughter. Sotan devoted the rest of his life to the tea in a tight connection with the teachings of Zen (in accord with his views on chanoyu he built a small tea room called - Konnichian - i.e. "This day's cabin"). Then he effaced himself from public life and after that dynasty possessions were divided between his two sons: the front part of his residence was given to the elder son Soso who founded Omotesenke school and the back section including Konnichian was inherited by his youngest son Soshitsu (Senso) who established the tradition of Urasenke school. The names "Ura" (back section) and "Omote" (front section) are placed in front of the dynasty name (Sen-ke, which means "Sen's dynasty") and indicate just the relative position of the inherited sections of the dynasty residence.

The possessions in Ogawa were taken over by next generations including chanoyu under the principles formulated by Sen Rikyu. Later, Oiemoto (the head of the dynasty), Master Tantansai founded the Urasenke foundation in 1949 which significantly supported mainly the foreign students of the Way of Tea. In 1964 the lead was taken over by the 15th disciple of the Way of Tea founder of Sen dynasty, Grandmaster Sen Soshitsu XV (Hounsai). Thanks to his efforts the popularity of the Tea Ceremony rose in a significant way not only in Japan but also abroad. Nowadays the Urasenke school has about 80 foreign branches (the oldest in Hawaii and others in the USA, Australia as well as in Europe - Paris, Sophia, Moscow and since April 2000 also in Prague) and with highest number of its followers Urasenke occupies the leading position before the other schools.

Master Sen Soshitsu XV recognized the great potential hidden in the Tea Ceremony and under his lead the school representatives go abroad to spread, among other things, understanding for the nature of the gentle spirit of Japanese culture. In order to present the Tea Ceremony in its true form he has given fully equiped garden tea houses to many institutions as a gift.

In the late 70's a new program for studying the Way of Tea for foreign scholarship recipients has opened at the Tea Ceremony college which is run under the auspices of Urasenke foundation. This program bears a fitting name - Midorikai - the green fellowship. For more than 20 years people from various corners of the world, of different age and professions have been coming to Kyoto for one year to study the art of the Way of Tea. Master Sen Soshitsu also holds seminars on the Tea Ceremony and culture in Honolulu every year. At the same time he publishes and distributes periodicals: "Chanoyu Quaterly" and "Urasenke Newsletter" (containing articles with the themes regarding the Tea Ceremony and Japanese art). He has also published plenty of information materials and books (in the CR it was the book - "The Way of Tea - The Spirit of the Tea"). Because of these noteworthy activities he is respected and honoured by the most prestigeous academic institutions all around the world. At the end of the year 2002 he was appointed to be the new Grand Master Zabosai Sen Soshitsu, Hounsai's son, to become the 16th successor of the Way of Tea tradition - Urasenke.