Cha Rikyu to Ima Wo Tsunagu (Shincho Shinsho)

[Machine Translation] It would be a shame to dismiss the tea ceremony as "a way to learn etiquette" or "for training brides. The tea ceremony is a comprehensive art form that utilizes all the senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell in the culture of daily life. Why were the warlords so enthusiastic about tea? Why was Sen no Rikyu stared down by Toyotomi Hideyoshi? Why must the tea bowl be passed around? The history of the dead, the logic of manners, and the pleasure of utensils: the story of the tea ceremony told by a young and brilliant tea master of the Mushanokoji Senke family, a descendant of Rikyu. Here is a new theory of chanoyu.

茶を「礼儀作法を学ぶもの」「花嫁修業のため」で片付けるのはもったいない。本来の茶の湯は、視覚、聴覚、触覚、味覚、嗅覚の全領域を駆使する生活文化の総合芸術なのだ。なぜ戦国武将たちが茶に熱狂したのか。なぜ千利休は豊臣秀吉に睨まれたのか。なぜ茶碗を回さなくてはいけないのか。死屍累々の歴史、作法のロジック、道具の愉しみ-利休の末裔、武者小路千家の若き異才の茶人が語る。新しい茶の湯論がここに。