Portugese in Japan

The late 1500's, when Rikyu was designing and teaching the tea ceremony, was also a time of tremendous Portugese influence on Japanese culture, economics and politics. With the traders came Jesuit missionaries bringing Catholic Christianity. Particularly in southern Japan, the missionary work was very successful--in some places as much as one-fourth of the population converted to Christianity.

Oranda (Japanese transliteration of "Holland") mizusashi, of European "tobacco leaf" design (Jun 97,17)

The influences of Christianity found their way into the tea ceremony as well. Many saw the ritual of offering candy and tea as analogous to the serving of bread and wine at the Mass, and at times the tea room would be used as a place where Mass could be celebrated furtively.

letter from Takayama Ukon to Hosokawa Sansai, written just prior to his exile

Rikyu had many students, but his seven best he considered his disciples. Of these seven, three--Oda Yuraku, Gamo Ujisato and Takayama Ukon--were Christians. Oda was the younger brother of the ruler Oda Nobunaga, and this undoubtedly protected him. Gamo died young, thereby avoiding persecution, but Takayama was forced to end his life in Philippine exile when Christianity was banished by the government.

chashaku and holder made by Takayama Ukon

During the centuries of religious persecution that followed, all Christian connections to the tea ceremony were forgotten. Today, however, there are both Japanese and foreign Christians who practice and teach the way of tea. They do not see the tea ceremony as going against their Christian beliefs, but as a way of gaining even deeper insight into their faith.