Murata Jukō is known in Japanese cultural history as the founder of chanoyu

Japanese tea ceremony

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called . The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called...

, in that he was the early developer of the wabi-cha

Wabi-cha

Wabi-cha Wabi-cha Wabi-cha (わび茶、侘茶、侘び茶）, or wabi-tea, is a style of Japanese tea ceremony particularly associated with Sen Rikyū and Takeno Jōō before him. Wabi-cha emphasizes simplicity...

 style of tea enjoyment employing native Japanese implements. His name may also be pronounced Murata Shukō.

He was born in Nara

Nara, Nara

is the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...

 and his original profession was as an attendant at Shōmyōji, a Buddhist temple of the Jōdō sect in Nara. His interest in chanoyu took him to Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, where he learned from Nōami

Noami

Nōami was a Japanese painter and renga poet in the service of the Ashikaga shogunate. An astute art connoisseur, Nōami collected Chinese paintings and other works of art for the shogunate, and served as an advisor in the ways of Japanese tea ceremony, incense and a variety of other elements...

 about the style of chanoyu practiced by the Ashikaga shōgun. He also practiced Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 under the priest Ikkyū Sōjun.

External links

• On-line book on the early history of tea in Japan, published by University of Hawaii Press. http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=MQmuSSimVyQC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Shomyoji+temple+Nara&source=bl&ots=02_rrNChQK&sig=XWeQYfVD5_noo_qa-sN1S1UpigM&hl=ja&ei=_8D-SZWPFcmSkAX__rT_BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPP1,M1