Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/283

 greatest master, the man who has been placed by the unanimous acclaim of posterity on the highest pinnacle of the craft, was the ill-fated Sen-no-Rikiu, who, obedient to the spirit that directed the policy of his patron Hideyoshi, the Aristarchus as well as the Csar of Japanese history, added many features of simplicity and economy to the ceremonial, so that it ceased to be limited to the aristocracy and was brought within reach of the middle classes. There have been in four centuries only six acknowledged high-priests of the cult: Shukô, who initiated the Ashikaga ruler, Yoshimasa; Jô-ô, who taught the principles of the cult to Nobunaga; Sen-no-Rikiu, preceptor of the Taikō; Furuta Oribe-no-jo, who initiated Hidetada, the second Tokugawa Shōgun; Kobori Yenshu-no-Kami, who performed the same office for the third of the Tokugawa rulers, Iyemitsu; and Katakiri Iwami-no-Kami, the teacher of Tokugawa Iyetsuna.

In the tea pavilion devised by Shukô, the principal chamber was nine feet square, with an alcove which measured six feet by three. The pavilion was roofed with shingles, and the guest-chamber was ceiled with a single board of finely grained timber. The walls were covered with monochromatic paper having a wrinkled surface, and the tea utensils were arranged in set order on a movable cabinet (daisu). The hearth was a foot and a half square, and over it was placed an iron urn chased in low relief. Jô-ô, the immediate