Yabunouchi and the Other Schools — Lineages Outside the Three Sen Houses

Major Schools Outside the Three Sen Houses

In addition to the three Sen houses covered in the previous article [Founding of the Three Sen Houses], many schools of chadō arose in the Edo period. Yabunouchi in particular stands with the Sen as fellow disciples in a lineage as old as any. Beyond this, lineages from Rikyū, Oribe, and Enshū and from Sōtan’s disciples produced more than ten schools that continue to the present.

This article surveys the major schools outside the three houses, giving the whole picture of tea’s diffusion in the Edo period.

The Yabunouchi House — Fellow Disciples with the Sen

The Yabunouchi (Yabunouchi-ryū) is a major school of Kyoto that arose alongside the Sen family. Founded by Yabunouchi Jōchi (1536-1627), a disciple of Takeno Jōō, its founder stood as fellow disciple (dōmon) with Sen no Rikyū.

The iemoto inherit the names “Yabunouchi Kenchū” or “Yabunouchi Jōchi.” The current iemoto is the 14th Yabunouchi Jōchi (Denshin-sai, born 1957), invested in 2009. The home is Enan-an, at Nishinotōin-dōri Gojō-agaru in Shimogyō, Kyoto.

Jōchi and Jōō / Rikyū

The founder, Kenchū Jōchi, was born in Tenbun 5 (1536) in the Furuichi family of Nara. A disciple of Takeno Jōō, he stood as fellow disciple with Sen no Rikyū (14 years his senior).

Jōchi married Jōō’s daughter, becoming Jōō’s son-in-law. Rikyū was Jōō’s foremost disciple, but not related by blood. In this sense, Jōchi has a case to being Jōō’s more direct heir.

After Jōō’s death, Jōchi is said to have received some guidance from Rikyū as well. Later he formed a friendship with Furuta Oribe and, on Oribe’s retirement, received the famous tea room “Enan-an.” This became the home of Yabunouchi.

Enan-an — A Signature Work of Oribe Taste

Enan-an is a three-mat plus daime tea room built by Furuta Oribe, a representative work of Oribe taste. Around Keichō 18 (1613), on Oribe’s retirement, it is said to have been given to Jōchi.

Features of Enan-an

• A three-mat-plus-daime plan with mukō-ita
• A shōban-seki (accompaniment seat) — two client mats
• Retains wabi while carrying the formality of warrior tea
• The naka-bashira — the design of a pillar separating host and guest seats

Yabunouchi’s Enan-an burned in the Genna era and was later rebuilt in the same form. “Copies” of the Enan-an were built by tea masters across Japan (there is an “Enan-an copy” even in Urasenke). Today the Enan-an is an Important Cultural Property and is opened to the public a few times a year.

The Tie to Nishi Hongan-ji

The Yabunouchi served throughout the Edo period as tea instructors to Nishi Hongan-ji (Jōdo Shinshū Honganji-ha). As an enormous religious organization with an enormous population of believers and financial power, Hongan-ji valued tea as part of its own ceremonial life.

The tie to Nishi Hongan-ji continued through the Meiji Restoration, and the Yabunouchi residence is in the temple-town before Hongan-ji (Nishinotōin-dōri Gojō-agaru), where it still is. It has many parish societies among the temple’s members, and Yabunouchi-ryū is strong in Kyoto, Osaka, and the Hokuriku Jōdo Shinshū heartlands.

Against the “townsman’s Sen” and the “warrior’s Enshū,” the Yabunouchi is the “religious” school — a rare position with a great temple as patron.

Yabunouchi’s Character — Warrior Tea Elements

Because the Yabunouchi’s home is Oribe’s Enan-an, it is a school that retains elements of warrior tea:

• Preserves formality in gesture strictly
• Weighs the handling of utensils by formal grade
• Distinct grades of shin, gyō, sō
• Transmits status-graded temae with the shōban-seki

Even so, the Yabunouchi cannot simply be filed under “warrior tea”; it is a distinctive school where townsman, warrior, and religious currents intersect.

Enshū-ryū — The Shogunate’s Tea Instructors

Enshū-ryū takes its origin in Kobori Enshū (1579-1647), treated in the previous article [Rikyū’s Seven Disciples and Daimyō Tea]. From the 10th, Kobori Masatada, on, the Kobori Sōhon-ke has been the iemoto of Enshū-ryū.

• Served as tea instructors to the shogunate during the Edo period; the summit of warrior tea
• Declined with the dismantling of warrior society at Meiji, then rebuilt postwar
• Current iemoto is the 13th Kobori Sōjitsu (born 1956); base at Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo
• Carries the graceful “kirei-sabi” style

Sekishū-ryū — The Shogunate’s Official “Legitimate” Warrior Tea

Katagiri Sekishū (Sadamasa, 1605-1673) was lord of Ōmi Kōizumi. Receiving the lineage of Rikyū, Oribe, and Enshū, he opened the Sekishū-ryū.

In Kanbun 5 (1665) he became tea instructor to the fourth shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna. From this, Sekishū-ryū was received as the “legitimate warrior tea” recognized by the shogunate and spread widely among the domains.

Sekishū-ryū’s Sub-Schools

After Sekishū’s death the school split into several lines:

• Ikei-ha — with Ikei-an, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji
• Fumai-ha — the line of Matsudaira Fumai (Harusato, 1751-1818), lord of Matsue, which flourished in Matsue
• Nomura-ha — Nomura Tokuan
• Shimizu-ha — the Shimizu of Edo
• Kōryū — meaning the “old-style” Sekishū-ryū

Matsudaira Fumai — Reviver of Sekishū-ryū

Matsudaira Fumai of Izumo Matsue is called the reviver of Sekishū-ryū. The wagashi, tea bowls, and lacquerware “Fumai-gonomi” (in Fumai’s taste) survive as living culture of Shimane today. Matsue is spoken of alongside Kyoto and Kanazawa as a tea town. Wagashi like “Wakakusa,” “Yamakawa,” and “Nanetane no sato” of Matsue trace their taste to Fumai.

Sōhen-ryū — Sōtan’s Four Heavenly Kings

Yamada Sōhen (1627-1708) was a disciple of Sen no Sōtan and one of “Sōtan’s Four Heavenly Kings.” He served the Mikawa Yoshida lord Ogasawara Nagakane, later active in Edo.

Features of Sōhen-ryū

• Purges all flashiness, aiming at the pure inheritance of Rikyū’s wabi
• Claims a legitimacy of wabi-cha “on a par with Fushin’an”
• Members concentrated in Yokohama, Tokyo, and the Kanto region
• After the Meiji Restoration, based at the Yamada residence in Yokohama
• The current iemoto is the 11th Yamada Sōhen, invested in 2005

Yōken-ryū — The Literary Line of Kyoto

Fujimura Yōken (1613-1699) was another of “Sōtan’s Four Heavenly Kings.” Born to a Kyoto merchant family, he was steeped in waka and renga.

Yōken-ryū spread among court and townsman literary circles, but its succession was unstable and it remained a small school from the Edo period. A small number of members still practice, centered in Kyoto.

Ueda Sōko-ryū — Hiroshima’s Warrior Tea

Ueda Sōko (1563-1650) was a disciple of Furuta Oribe and Sen no Rikyū, who became a retainer of the Asano family, the Aki Hiroshima lords. He founded Ueda Sōko-ryū in Hiroshima.

The iemoto have served as retainers of the Asano family through the generations. The current iemoto is the 16th Ueda Sōkei (born 1945). Based in Hiroshima, they preserve the robust style of warrior tea.

Edo Senke — Omotesenke’s Edo Expansion

Kawakami Fuhaku (1719-1807) was born in Kishū and studied under the seventh of Omotesenke, Nyoshin-sai Tennen. In Hōreki 1 (1751) he went down to Edo and spread Omotesenke’s tea in Edo.

Fuhaku’s line became a major school of Edo through the Edo period and, having gained independence from Omotesenke, came to be called “Edo Senke.” Today’s Edo Senke centers on the Fuhaku-kai head office at Yushima, Tokyo. The iemoto is the 11th Kawakami Kansetsu, invested in 2015.

Dai-Nippon Sadō Gakkai — A Cross-School Experiment

Tanaka Senshō (1875-1960) founded the Dai-Nippon Sadō Gakkai (Meiji 31 / 1898), a cross-school chadō body. Its aim: “to learn the essence of chadō without being bound to a school.”

• Has no particular iemoto system
• Advances open research in tea
• Continues today, based in Hongō, Tokyo

A crystallization of the criticism of the iemoto system in Meiji. An experimental organization of “tea without a school.”

Comparison of the Major Schools

School	Founder	Formation	Line	Patron	Present
Yabunouchi	Yabunouchi Jōchi	Early Edo	Jōō line	Nishi Hongan-ji	Kyoto, 14th
Enshū-ryū	Kobori Enshū	Early Edo	Oribe line	Shogunate	Tokyo, 13th
Sekishū-ryū	Katagiri Sekishū	Early Edo	Oribe / Rikyū line	Shogunate	Several sub-schools
Sōhen-ryū	Yamada Sōhen	Early Edo	Sōtan’s Four	Ogasawara	Yokohama, 11th
Yōken-ryū	Fujimura Yōken	Early Edo	Sōtan’s Four	Court	Small, Kyoto
Ueda Sōko-ryū	Ueda Sōko	Early Edo	Oribe line	Asano	Hiroshima, 16th
Edo Senke	Kawakami Fuhaku	Mid-Edo	Omotesenke line	Edo townspeople	Tokyo, 11th
Dai-Nippon Sadō Gakkai	Tanaka Senshō	1898	Cross-school	—	Tokyo
Hayami-ryū	Hayami Sōtatsu	Late Edo	Urasenke line	Court	Okayama

The Rise and Decline of Warrior Tea

Edo-era warrior-tea schools — Enshū-ryū, Sekishū-ryū, Ueda Sōko-ryū — took the domains’ lords and retainers as their base of members, and were supported by domain patronage. With the dismantling of warrior society at the Meiji Restoration, they declined sharply at once.

In their place, the three Sen houses — especially Urasenke — grew, taking townspeople and women as their base. Post-Meiji chadō underwent a great turn “from warriors to townspeople and women.” That the great majority of contemporary chadō practitioners are women is the result of this Meiji turn.

“Four Houses” and “Seven Streams” — Ways of Counting

Counts of schools varied by period:

• Edo era — the “four houses” (Sen, Yabunouchi, Enshū, Sekishū) was the representative grouping
• Present — the “three Sen houses, Yabunouchi, Enshū, Sekishū, Sōhen, Edo Senke” is the standard grouping

Umbrella organizations like the iemoto assemblies and the All-Japan Sadō Federation include dozens of schools.

The Modern “Choice of School”

When starting chadō, the choice of school is important but daunting. A rough guide:

• Largest school, most sites → Urasenke
• Formal, traditional → Omotesenke
• Practical, steady → Mushakōji-senke
• Warrior-tea formality → Enshū-ryū, Sekishū-ryū
• Pure wabi-cha inheritance → Sōhen-ryū
• Kyoto tradition → Yabunouchi
• Local schools — each region has its own

Starting with a school whose practice site you can reach on foot is realistic. Mastering one school and then learning another is difficult; the initial choice becomes a long relationship.

From This Article to the Next

We have traced the major schools outside the three Sen houses. The next article turns to the tea room — the center of chadō’s space. Anchored by the three National-Treasure tea rooms (Taian, Jo-an, Mittan), we cover the lineage of sukiya-zukuri, the design of the nijiri-guchi, shitaji-mado, and tokonoma, and the aesthetics of the roji (tea garden) — the “path where one becomes wet with dew” as it leads to the tea room.