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Special Exhibition
The Way of Tea in Katagiri Sekishū Style
An Authentic Samurai Tradition
Saturday, February 22 – Sunday, March 30, 2025
Special Exhibition The Way of Tea in Katagiri Sekishū Style An Authentic Samurai Tradition
Closed Closed on Mondays except February 24 (closed the following Tuesday)
Hours 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.(last entry: 4:30 p.m.)
General admission (On-line timed-entry tickets) Adult 1500 yen, Student 1200 yen
Gallery 1/2

Katagiri Sekishū (1605-73) was the second-generation lord of the Koizumi domain in Yamato province (now Nara prefecture). He was also the founding father of the Sekishū way of tea, which spread mainly among warrior families. He had studied with Kuwayama Sōsen (1560-1632) late in the life of that tea master, who had studied the way of tea with Sen Dōan (1546-1607), a son of Sen Rikyū. Sekishū thus made the Rikyū style of wabicha his foundation. He also held stately tea gatherings, as suited a daimyo, and followed Furuta Oribe and Kobori Enshū in establishing the tea style for samurai households.
Sekishū’s style spread widely among daimyo and warrior families and thus produced a large number of those serving as the Tokugawa shogunate’s sukiyabōzu, an official position in charge of tea-related matters in Edo Castle. The Sekishū style became the authentic style of tea gatherings among the warrior class during the rule of the Tokugawa.
This exhibition honors Sekishū and the Sekishū way of tea, which, despite their extremely significant position in the history of tea traditions, have received little attention thus far.

Gallery Exhibits

Portrait of Katagiri Sekishū
By Tōgetsu, with inscription by Shingan Sōjō
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Japan Edo period, dated 1767
Hōshun'in
Sekishū, who had been appointed Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, daimyo of Iwami, is portrayed in court costume. Shingan Sōjō (1721-1801), the eleventh-generation chief priest at the Hōshun’in, a subtemple at Kyoto’s Daitokuji Temple with which Sekishū had had deep ties, had it painted for the hundredth anniversary of Sekishū’s death.
※On exhibit: Saturday, February 22 – Sunday, March 9
Tea Container, Named Yofune
Seto ware, shirifukura type
Ceramic
Japan Momoyama–Edo periods, 16th–17th centuries
Nezu Museum
Sekishū used this charming plump-bottomed Seto tea container again and again at his tea gatherings. It is accompanied by four decorative storage bags, two of the type samurai tea master Enshū favored and two in Sekishū’s own taste.
Tea Scoop, Named Samidare, with Case
By Katagiri Sekishū
Bamboo
Japan Edo period, 17th century
NOMURA ART MUSEUM
The tea scoops Sekishū made are imbued with the elegance and grace one would expect of a daimyo. This work, known as the epitome of his tea scoops, is recorded in the Unshū Kurachō, an inventory of the collection of Matsudaira Fumai. Fumai, the seventh-generation daimyo of the Unshū Matsue domain (now Shimane prefecture), studied the Sekishū style of tea.
Important Cultural Property
Religious Verse
By Wuzhun Shifan
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
China Southern Song dynasty, 13th century
MOA MUSEUM OF ART
On the eighth day of the eleventh month of 1665, Sekishū served tea to Tokugawa Ietsuna, the fourth-generation Tokugawa shogun. Among the Ryūei Gomotsu (famous tea utensils treasured by the Tokugawa shoguns) is this calligraphy by Wuzhun Shifan, which was selected as a hanging scroll for the tokonoma alcove.
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