Murata Jukō

is known in Japanese cultural history as the founder of the Japanese tea ceremony, in that he was the early developer of the wabi-cha style of tea enjoyment employing native Japanese implements. His name may also be pronounced Murata Shukō.

Biography He was born in Nara; some accounts refer to his father as a blind biwa player, although it is generally assumed that he was from the mercantile class. At an early age, he became an attendant at Shōmyōji, a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo sect in Nara. During his youth, Jukō encountered the boisterous tocha gatherings of tea connoisseurs; although these held no appeal for him, he became interested in tea as a stimulant to keep him awake during his studies. It was Ikkyū's teaching that "the Buddha dharma is also in the Way of Tea" which inspired Jukō's creation of the tea ceremony. Ikkyū presented Jukō with a piece of calligraphy by Yuan Wu (a noted Chinese master of Zen) as a certificate of his enlightenment. As well as being an exposition of practice, the Kokoro no fumi has been explained as an attempt to establish Japan's merchant class within the field of tea, emphasising as it does the use of Japanese ceramics alongside imported Chinese ones. However, his style did not prohibit the use of the Chinese ware previously in vogue; He argued that beginners in the tea ceremony should start by obtaining Chinese pieces in order to fully appreciate subsequent Japanese purchases.

Jukō stressed four values in his tea ceremony: kin, a form of humble reverence; kei, a respect for the food and drink; sei, purity of both body and spirit; and jaku, a Buddhist concept denoting calmness and freedom from desire. He developed the yojohan (four-and-a-half mat teahouse) that was later to become the standard design under Rikyū, changing the tokonoma and creating a more spiritual environment for the ceremony. In doing so, he attempted to incorporate the aesthetic concepts of hie (chill) and kare (withered) from renga poetry into the tea ceremony; Jukō was a master of the renga literary form. These qualities, were, he felt, expressed in the Japanese bowls and jars that he used.

Takeno Jō'ō studied under students of Jukō and continued the trend towards simplicity and minimalism in the tea ceremony. Jōō was the teacher of Sen no Rikyū.