Kobori enshu biography of william

It was inevitable that the tea ceremony of Enshu which succeeded Rikyu and Oribe with artistic improvements was born in aesthetic contrast to the wabi-cha of the style of Sotan. Enshu was called the descendant of Fujiwara Hidesato, His name came from the appointment as a landlord of Totomi Enshu in As mentioned above, Enshu had outstanding talents in not only tea ceremony but also in many different areas.

This is Nagoya Castle in Nagoya. This is Nijo-jo in the middle of Kyoto. Also Enshu was genius in terms of garden design.

Kobori enshu biography of william

He is famous for designing of Katsura Rikyu and Sento Palace. Both are in Kyoto. This is the garden of Raikyuji, Okayama. It was not simply a matter of connections in high places, in the end it was his talent and vision that came to the fore and was recognised. His star rose quickly, at the age of 26 following the death of his father he inherited the family fortune and the position of manager of Bitchu Takamatsuyama castle.

Very little remains of the castle today, but the Raikyu-ji garden is attested to be the work of Enshu. Nanzen-ji Hojo, Kyoto Enshu was multi talented, that is clear, he was a renown tea master, accepted as someone who brought new thinking to Tea, he was also a noted calligrapher and a poet. He mixed with people who were curious about many subjects, artistic, practical and philosophical.

He lived through a period of political settlement which allowed an emphasis to be placed on the arts, after a long period of instability, peace was returning. Unusually for the time Enshu had a broad perspective which incorporated an interest in the West, in his collection of tea ware were Chinese, Korean, South East Asian pieces, but also Delftware pottery which orginaly must have been traded with the Dutch merchants in Asia.

Turtle island, Konchi-in, Kyoto As with an art form as delicate and subject to change as gardens, it is never going to be easy to picture exactly what the gardens of Enshu's time looked like. We have the skeleton, but did Raikyu-ji really have those great calligraphic swathes of trimmed azaleas in his day? Lord Enshu served as a tea ceremony instructor under three Tokugawa shoguns.

In his teachings, he added his own samurai sensibility to the wabi-sabi [4] of previous tea masters. To this he added a focus on aristocratic elegance. Rikyu came from the merchant class and was not a samurai. However, there are a few Iemoto with old lineages that were founded by feudal lords, and incorporate samurai values.