Sen no Rikyū

Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), born in the merchant city of Sakai, was the Japanese tea master who shaped the tea ceremony more than any other. Trained under Kitamuki Dōchin and Takeno Jō'ō, he became tea master to Oda Nobunaga in 1579 and later the tea confidant of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In 1585 the emperor bestowed on him the title Rikyū Koji, and in 1587 he led Hideyoshi's Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony. He perfected wabi-cha, the way of rustic simplicity, designing the two-mat Tai-an tearoom and Raku tea bowls with the tile-maker Chōjirō. In 1591 Hideyoshi ordered him to kill himself at the Jurakudai palace in Kyoto.