Samurai and tea ceremony

Little is known of the entrance of the tea plant or Camellia sinensis (cha- 茶) in Japan, however it is known that Emperor Shomu, in his palace of Nara in 729, served about 100 monks a tea coming Of China, thanks to its ambassadors in the court of Tang. A century later, the tea trade began to flourish due to trade with China, especially in temples that began to cultivate their seeds.

One of the founders of Zen Buddhism (Eissa), he wrote a treatise on how to promote physical and spiritual health through the use of its properties, which he reflected in a treatise on it called Kissa Yojoki. A few years later, his disciple Dogen (1200-1253) instituted rules of ceremony in line with the life of the moment. It was not until a few years later that the use of this drink became a game, since with "Trout" as a new social game, the guests to this ceremony had to find out the kind of tea that they were taking in that precise moment; This concrete fact together with the use of elements such as crafts and decorative objects in the cups, gradually made this ceremony take on a more serious tone.

The latter took a deep breath in the society of the samurai, because of the austerity of the ceremony itself, since it went beyond mere entertainment or medicinal value of the plant itself, although the most detonating fact occurred in the Time of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490) who appointed teacher of the tea to a master of the ZEN (Ikku Sojun). This period was followed by progressive minimalism, simplicity and ascension. Among the latest innovations made, it should be emphasized that all participants should enter crouching at the same ceremony, regardless of their social status and rank.

These well-known facts are known that they served to the samurais daymos and shogun own Nobunaga, for political ends and well to gain the favor of the monks or of a city and its servitude by means of authorizations to his generals to make use of the same For personal and political-military purposes.