hina-matsuri (March 3) doll display, showing Imperial court

In the 7th century AD, seeds for tea were first brought to Japan from China, where tea had been served since the third century. Tea was grown in Buddhist temples and used by the monks as a medicinal beverage. The Emperor Shomu (724-49) was the first to record serving tea to Buddhist monks. However, green tea remained a rare and expensive commodity in Japan for centuries.

early party, including tea

In 1187, the monk Eisai travelled to China, and returned in 1191 with seeds for finer quality tea which he grew in Hakata (on the island of Kyushu) for the Zen sect of Buddhism, which was becoming popular. Eisai is also credited with the grinding of tea leaves into matcha, which the Chinese had been doing since at least 1053. Importing the chasen from China also occured at about this time.

itinerant tea merchants (9/94)

During the 1300's, a game of tea-guessing called tocha became very popular. The participants were given up to 100 bowls of tea, and were expected to guess from what area of Japan the tea had come. This was gradually replaced in the 1400's with cha-e, a precursor of the tea ceremony, which gave rise to the shoin architectural style.

tearoom blueprint

In contrast to the shoin style, Murata Shuko (1422-1502) made two important changes in serving tea. First, he preferred the closeness of a nine-foot-square tea room. More importantly, he was the first to actually prepare the tea in front of the guests, which is the basis of modern tea ceremony practice. By this time, a "liking of tea" (suki) was assumed to demonstrate aesthetic taste as well.

Nagoya castle (10/94)

By the mid-1500's, economic and religious influences of the Portugese caused great upheavals throughout Japan. Sakai, a port city near Osaka, grew in size and power--and in the love of serving tea. Takeno Jo-o, born the year of Shuko's death, went even further than Shuko in making the tea ceremony simple, elegant, and direct--qualities admired by the samurai and the Sakai townspeople alike.

Kissaraku-ji painting (Aug 95)

The near-universal embracing of the tea ceremony by the new samurai can be seen at this time in the practice of Oda Nobunaga, who reunified Japan in the 1570's. He often rewarded his successful generals with tea utensils which had been used by previous shoguns. Moreover, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, solidified his power by holding three grand tea ceremonies within six months in 1582-3.