Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/284

 successor of Shukô, while preserving the dimensions fixed by the latter, substituted plaster for paper on the walls, reduced the number of articles in the tea equipage, and caused the door to be made of bamboo instead of boards. He also introduced the custom of placing the tea equipage in a cupboard instead of on a cabinet, and of hanging the urn by a chain from the ceiling instead of supporting it over the hearth on a tripod. This simplified form of room subsequently came to be called the "Chain Chamber," as distinguished from the more elaborate pavilion of Shukô. By Sen-no-Rikiu further modifications were devised in the direction of homeliness. He reduced the dimensions of the tea-room from four and a half mats (a mat is six feet by three) to two and a half; caused it to be covered with a thatch of bamboo grass instead of a roof of elaborately laid shingles, and generally simplified the character of the equipage. But after his death (1591) his disciples dispersed, some abandoning altogether a cult whose greatest master had met with such a tragic fate, and some eschewing the particular fashions to which he had given his name. One man only, Sôkei, remained faithful to the principles of his teacher, and he, observing the gradual degeneration of Sen's art, and recognising his own inability to arrest its decadence, left his home, clad in pilgrim's garb, and was never heard of again. Evil days for the Cha-no-yu continued until the time of the Second Tokugawa Shōgun, Hidetada