The Tea Ceremony

After the death of Oribe, tea was radically reformulated for Edo Period use, especially that of the shogunal family, by Kobori Enshu. He evolved the aesthetic of Ôkirei-sabiÕ, where ÔkireiÕ is beauty and ÔsabiÕ a rust or erosion. As well as working as a teamaster, Enshu was a master of works (i.e. architect) to the shogunate, and a garden builder. He also excelled at poetry, calligraphy and as a ceramicist. He admired the old courtly style of the Heian Period, and studied it. Many of the tea items he made are inscribed with old court verses. He also fused the manners of Oribe and Rikyu. But in its love of antiques, EnshuÕs tea differed from RikyuÕs. It was also different from OribeÕs. It had about it a nostalgic revivalism. The fact that he has such a full background in ancient court aesthetics, though, meant that he was not simply reviving, but building on a base of the past for use in the modern world. He altered the ÔsabiÕ of Momoyama into the Ôkirei-sabiÕ of Edo.