Senno Rikyu

Also, called Sen no Rikyu. Tea master of the Sengoku Period, employed in leading roles by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Rikyu was born in Sakai in 1522, the son of a wholesale fishmonger. He devoted himself to tea from a young age, and also trained in Zen. The first authoritative record of his performing a tea meeting dates to when he was 23 years old.
Rikyu came into contact with wealthy teamen in the flourishing port city of Sakai, such as Tsuda Sogyu and Imai Sokyu, and via them encountered Nobunaga, who employed him. After Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi took him on in a senior capacity, and ultimately as his top tea master. Rikyu's influence over Hideyoshi grew and grew. In 1587 he performed the famous Great Kitano Tea Party at the Tenman-gu shrine in Kyoto, which gave him the acknowledged role of Tea Master of the Realm.
Rikyu took pride in his position, and in 1589 installed a wooden stature of himself in the gatehouse of the Daitoku-ji. For this (and others) acts of lese majesty, Hideyoshi ordered him to commit suicide in 1591.
The aesthetic of tea deployed by Rikyu had emerged among the wealthy townspeople, and centred on the notion of 'wabi', or 'withered restraint'. He codified the movements and gestured to be used at meetings, and developed his own type of tea house and tea utensils. He is revered as the one who took tea to its highest level of practice and deepest level of philosophy. He is the founder of the modern the Tea Ceremony.