Wabi-cha and the Art of Hospitality The Political Power of Tea
Rikyū’s Influence and How Tea Became a Diplomatic Tool
In this article, the focus is on wabi-cha, one of the origins of Japan’s hospitality techniques.
Hospitality involves a relationship between host and guest. As the etymology of “hospitality” contains an implication of “hostile,” inserting this element creates a certain tension between the two parties. Interpreting the guest through a Japanese lens, we arrive at the concept of “marebito” as proposed by the folklorist Shinobu Orikuchi.
Marebito refers to “strangers” or “otherworldly visitors.” These strangers are other beings who possess abilities and techniques that the host does not. They are not gods (god) but kami, beings that bring the “absence of the host” into the host’s world, thereby introducing an inevitable tension.
In ancient times, marebito were thought to be foreign visitors who came from the distant edges of the sea or the mountains—realms considered “otherworlds” beyond the village community.
These marebito, who represented what was absent in the community, would visit at certain predetermined times. The villagers, as their hosts, were obliged to welcome them. There was an implicit norm that, after their appointed time had passed, the marebito would always depart.
In exchange for their hospitality, marebito would employ techniques that the villagers did not have, performing roles in rituals—such as calming the forces of nature—that the local people could not fulfill themselves. Although these customs have died out, until around the 1960s, various marebito traditions still remained across Japan.
During the samurai era, diverse hospitality techniques were practiced, one of which was wabi-cha. Today, the Way of Tea is often regarded as a mere traditional cultural practice of preparing and drinking tea.
However, the true essence of the Way of Tea lies in a sophisticated hospitality technique of spatial design and atmosphere creation, not simply in the tea itself.
The leading figures in this were the tea masters of the samurai era.
The custom of drinking tea in Japan began in the Kamakura period, when the monk Eisai (1141-1215) introduced tea. Later, the monk Murata Jukō (1422–1502) applied a Japanized Buddhist philosophy to tea, giving rise to the concepts of the tearoom and tea utensils. This process created the highly refined culture of wabi-cha.
What Jukō emphasized was the equal relationship between host and guest—this was precisely hospitality. In fact, the essence of wabi-cha is a hospitality technique, not inherent in the tea itself. This point is often misunderstood even today.
It was Takeno Jōō (1502–1555) who elevated wabi-cha, this form of Japanese hospitality, to the level of a cultural art.
At that time, Japan was in the Sengoku Period, an age of warring states where various warlords rose and vied for power. Among the many places drawing attention was Sakai in Osaka, a major hub of arms trade and weapons manufacturing.
In fact, during the Sengoku Period, the only self-governing cities in Japan were Sakai and Hirano.
In particular, Sakai, as a thriving trading port, was home to merchants whose powers of commerce—such as the buying and selling of weapons—held real sway over warlords who aimed to unify the country. Without winning over the merchants of Sakai, a warlord had no future.
As Sakai developed into a prosperous commercial city, its merchants became a pivotal point influencing political developments. They adapted the tea culture, originally rooted in Buddhism, for the purpose of entertaining guests during negotiations and business dealings. Born into a family of arms merchants in Sakai, Jōō stood at this intersection.
Jōō reformed the tearoom, where secret meetings such as arms deals took place. He decorated the interior with ink paintings and collected Chinese masterpieces, thereby creating a new spatial environment free from direct Buddhist influences.
As a leader of wabi-cha, he is even said to have approached the shogunate, thereby granting wabi-cha (and the secret meetings it enabled) considerable political influence.
This new era of the Way of Tea, pioneered by Jōō, was inherited and further developed by Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), revered as the founder of the Way of Tea.
By the time of Rikyū, Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) of Owari Province was rapidly conquering neighboring territories, nearly achieving the dream of national unification. With his overwhelming power, Nobunaga exerted pressure on Sakai, the autonomous city, eventually stripping it of its self-governance in 1569 and bringing it under his control.
Having secured the heart of weapons manufacturing, Nobunaga imposed large-scale firearms trade in Sakai to build the strongest gun corps. During this period, Rikyū won the trust of warlords through successive secret negotiations among Sakai’s arms merchants, Portuguese missionaries (who effectively held weapons privileges), and the military leaders.
If one was born into a merchant family in Sakai at that time, mastering wabi-cha was essential. Moreover, one needed to secure private routes to obtain famed Chinese and Japanese ceramics, possess knowledge of political undercurrents, and cultivate aesthetic sensibilities.
Born into such a merchant family in Sakai, Rikyū was trained in these ways from childhood. Utilizing his diverse connections, he caught Nobunaga’s attention and was appointed as “tea master” (sadō), making a name for himself.
Rikyū gradually transformed from a mere figure who facilitated secret meetings between samurai, merchants, and missionaries—both publicly and privately—into a political fixer with considerable influence.
After Nobunaga’s death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598), who had risen from humble farming origins, succeeded him, and Rikyū’s influence grew even stronger.
At this time, Hideyoshi, due to aesthetic sensibilities informed by his own origins, made various interventions in the previously samurai-oriented wabi-cha. He attempted to steer it away from Nobunaga’s influence. By chance, these interventions greatly impacted the spirit of wabi-sabi.
For example, Hideyoshi drastically reduced the size of tearooms and adjusted how light entered through the windows. This created a more intimate psychological environment conducive to the particular “secret discussions” he desired. He also flaunted his newfound wealth by commissioning gold-laden tea utensils and even tearooms, reflecting his nouveau riche tastes.
In the end, Rikyū clashed with Hideyoshi and, by Hideyoshi’s order, was forced to commit seppuku. Thus ended Rikyū’s life. Where did the true nature of Rikyū—who brought wabi-cha to its political apex—lie?
It lay in the technique of “shitsurae”—arranging the tearoom’s environment so as to place even opposing guests in an equal relationship, preventing them from going to war. It was a sophisticated form of hospitality.
In fact, the original tearoom was a space where people were not viewed hierarchically but placed in an equal, tense relationship. It truly embodied the essence of Japanese hospitality.
Born in Sakai, the hometown of Rikyū, I have reinterpreted Rikyū’s spirit of wabi-cha—not just seeing him as the founder of the Way of Tea, but discovering within it a sophisticated hospitality technique.