English

日本語

Heart of Hospitality 〜O-MO-TE-NA-SHI〜

History <Azuchi-Momoyama era>


Third, this is the opinion that "Omotenashi" was begun in Azuchi-Momoyama era by Sen No Rikyu.

He is a master of the tea ceremony and served Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi. He put hi mind of "Omotenashi" in The Tea Ceremony Seven Rules". I introduce some of this rules.

1.Make a delicious bowl of tea
It means that masters of the tea ceremony should adjust to moderate temperature and quantity in order to drink easily for the guest.  There is a famous episode which was by Mitsunari Ishida and called "Sanwan-no-Sai" in this respect.
When Hideyoshi Hashiba (later Hideyoshi Toyotomi) who was the top of the Nagahama Castle in those days did falconry and took a rest in Kannon temple in his territory, Mitsunari who was a page of the temple prepared some drink to see Hideyoshi being all in asweat. At the first cup, he poured a lot of hot water into a big container and served it. When Hideyoshi required the second cup, he poured hot water which was slightly hotter than the first cup into a container which was smaller than the first cup and served it. When Hideyoshi required the third cup, he poured hottest water of the three cups into a smallest container of them. Hideyoshi admired Mitsunari's attractive heart, Hideyoshi decided to make Mitsunari a retainer.

2.Arrange the charcoal in order to boil water quickly
It means that we should hold down the important of the prcess. In other words, a master of tea ceremony cannot give tea even if he prepared a superior tool so much if hot water is not boiled probably. For that reason, boiling water is the most important point of making tea. Therefore, when doing "Omotenashi", it is important to prepare and to do "Omotenashi" after holding an important point.

3.Keep the room cool in summer and warm in winter
It means that masters of tea ceremony should make the room comfort. It was difficult to make guest feel comfortable in the time without an air conditioner and a stove. However, it's important to make guest feel comfortable as much as possible. For these reasons, we think it's important to prepare the field at the thought of the opponent.

4.Give your guests every consideration
It means that masters should pay attention to everyone who are in tea ceremony. In other words, it's important that masters should pay to not only a part of people but also everyone and all of guests think that the tea ceremony was very wonderful.

Thus, we think Rikyu want to say "It's important during looking after guests and masters should think about guests rather than themselves, prepare and do the "Omotenashi"" through The Tea Ceremony Seven Rules.

copyright © 2015 Heart of Hospitality All Rights Reserved.