ABSTRACT
In the many volumes of scholarship written on Japanese tea culture, little information can be found on the tea of the late Tokugawa period, particularly the activities of warrior tea practitioners. The most thoroughly researched period is the end of Sen no Rikyū's age, the epoch of “inferior overthrows superior” (gekokujō). In that time of social chaos, wealthy commoner merchants like Rikyū led developments in the world of chanoyu. Rikyū, of course, was forced to commit suicide in 1591, just one year after the unification of Japan by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After that symbolic event, leadership in tea was transferred from elite commoners to elite warrior tea masters. After the destruction of the Toyotomi house in 1615, the Tokugawa house established a political structure in which power was balanced between the central Tokugawa government and regional domain authorities. Loyalty was transferred to the person of the hegemon, the Tokugawa Shogun. Commoner tea masters in the Tokugawa period, though still influential, depended on elite warriors for their livelihood and status.
