Cultural Significance of Seiwansawa Written by Oeda Ryuho in History of Japanese Senchado

Abstract

Seiwansawa, the book written by Oeda Ryuho is the first specialty publication of Senchado in Japan. He lived as a hermit in Kyoto and Osaka and lived as a man of taste, leaving various books on the elegant hobbies of literary taste, including incense burning. It was Seiwansawa that the publisher edited and published a separate article about infusing tea written during his lifetime. The publication of this book suggests high interest in the new method of making tea, infusing tea of intellectual in Japan at the time. He described his thought of infusing tea by quoting a number of Chinese references. Rather than accepting a large number of Chinese literature as it is, he added his views by adopting them analytically based on his experience and preferences. His though of infusing tea, which was revealed through the book, aims to inspire grace by recognizing infusing tea as one of the elegant hobbies of literati. His view of tea inherited Baisao's view by retrospecting the spirit of tea to Lu yu and Lu Tong, the literati of Tang period, but he considered pleasure rather than performance. This pursuit of elegant and pleasure improved the uniqueness and professionalism of the method of infusing tea, and his view of tea could be followed by Ueda Akinari and other later literati tea lover.