Column

Tea master and founder of the Sowa style. He was born the eldest son of Kanamori Yoshishige, lord of the important castle of Hida-Takayama, and would normally have inherited this estate, but for some reason provoked his father's ire and was disinherited. He went to Kyoto with his mother and lived in reclusion, becoming a monk and practising Zen at the Daitoku-ji under the monastic name Sowa.
Sowa's tea style was elegant and refined, and nicknamed the 'princess Sowa' manner. It was influential on tea performed in court circles, and the emperor Go-Mizunoo favoured it. Sowa encouraged the ceramic art of Nonomura Ninsei, regarded as a founder of Kyoto ware, and ensured his pieces gained critical attention and a market.
Sowa is famous today for creating the garden of the Shinju-an subtemple at the Daitoku-ji, the Sekka-tei pavilion at the Golden Pavilion and the Rokuso-an hermitage at the Jigan-in subtemple of the Kofuku-ji.