いまは作法が喧(やかま)しくなっている茶の湯もかつてはさまざまなスタイルがあった。どんな場でも愉しめたし、客は正座などしていなかった。歴史的には禅院の茶礼、茶寄合、闘茶、会所の茶というふうに変化して、南北朝から室町にかけて点前・茶道具・茶室が揃い、多様な茶数寄の趣向が生じた。それが豪商や町衆に広まると、下京茶湯や淋汗(りんかん)茶湯になった。柴屋軒宗長は「下京茶湯とて此ころ茶数寄といふ」と書いた。茶数寄は作法に縛られていなかった。
奈良興福寺の六方衆に古市澄胤(ふるいちちょういん)がいた。応仁の乱で勢力を広げた古市家の跡継ぎで、六万石の大名になってからは兄の胤栄(いんえい)とともに神仏に篤く、連歌・能楽・茶に遊び、かつまた博打や馬を愉んだ。バサラな茶の湯をしたくて、周囲を飾り立てた湯殿に風呂を沸かし、多いときは五十人百人を呼び、酒肴と茶をふるまって風流(ふうりゅう)の遊宴を繰り返した。淋汗の茶事と言われるようになった。
この風呂上がりの茶事に来ていた村田珠光が、出家を嫌って京都三条に赴いて一休の大徳寺などに参禅したり下京の茶を嗜むうちに「茶禅一味」を感得すると、澄胤らのバサラ趣向を侘びさせることを思いつく。珠光独得の侘茶の始まりだ。
珠光はしばしば奈良に戻って澄胤にも侘びることを教え、その心得を「心の文(ふみ)」とさせた。慢心と華美を戒めたのだ。かくて澄胤も侘茶に遊ぶようになったのだが、この経緯には茶寄合や淋間茶事の大胆な圧縮もおこっていて、たとえば湯を沸かす道具が風炉と名付けられたり、そこに立て回すものが風炉先屏風と呼ばれるようになったりした。珠光の侘茶は紹鴎(じょうおう)をへて利休が大成したが、私は奈良や京都の僧侶や町衆はその後も「風呂と茶」という組み合わせをそれなりに工夫して遊んでいたのではないかと思っている。
私の父は京都の呉服屋であって旦那衆だった。蔵を潰して隣の帯屋と庭をつなげ、不審庵もどきの茶室を杉皮の裏を張りめぐらして包み、夏の夜咄(よばなし)につながりそうな ときは、夕方に「ひと風呂浴びたらどうでっか」「ええ湯が沸いてまっせ」と言っていた。
茶にもいろいろある。薄茶・濃茶もあるが、煎茶もある。私の友人たちは煎茶ではジャコメッティを置いたり、玉堂に肖(あやか)った琴を弾いたりする。茶の湯ももっと自由に愉しんでいい。かつて裏千家の伊住政和君は茶美会(さびえ)と称して、ホールに幾つもの茶席を意匠させ、ガラス食器にフレンチなども出していた。今後、小さな風呂を設(しつら)えた茶室がどこかに出来たら、私はさっそく呼ばれて「ああ、いい湯だ。ああ、うまい茶だ」と言ってみたい。
Though tea ceremony was diverse in style before, courtesy manners and rules have become more rigid. In early days tea ceremony was enjoyed at any place and guests were not always seated straight. Through years of history, it had been transformed from Cha-rei (tea drinking rituals) at Zen temples, Cha-yoriai (meeting of worriers enjoying tea and other games), Tocha (tea tasting) to Kaisho-no-cha (tea at club). Diverse courtesy rules and manners of tea ceremony started to flourish between Namboku-cho Era to Muromachi Era when temae (art of performance), cha-dogu (implements) and tearooms were introduced. When it spread to rich merchants and local businessmen, it was further diversified into Shimogyo Cha-no-yu and Rinkan Cha-no-yu. Socho Saiokuken wrote, “Shimogyo Cha-no-yu is another style of tea ceremony.” It was not bound by strict manners then.
Choin Furuichi was one of the Roppo-shu (monk-soldier) at Kofukuji Temple in Nara. He was a successor of Furuichi family that expanded its power in Civil War of Onin. The family became a feudal lord with yield of sixty thousand koku (rice). He and his elder brother In’ ei were both patrons of Buddhism and Shintoism and enjoyed poem writing, Noh play, tea ceremony as well as gambling and horse riding. Choin wanted to practice flamboyant tea ceremony. He frequently prepared a bath in a decorated bathroom and invited fifty or sometimes hundred guests. He offered them a bath before serving drinks, light meals and tea. The form of tea ceremony was called Rinkan-no-Chaji (tea event).
Juko Murata was one of the guests of tea events with bath. He hated to be a priest and went to Sanjo in Kyoto, practicing Zen at Daitokuji Temple where Ikkyu was a monk. He then learned the philosophy of Chazen’ichimi (Zen and tea ceremony are the same) and came up with the idea to make Choin and others to simplify and make their flamboyant taste of tea more subdued. Here wabi-cha unique to Juko started.
Juko returned to Nara and taught Choin to live a simple life. The lesson was made into a moral writing. He admonished Choin against self-conceit and gaudiness. That is how Choin started to practice wabi-cha. It started around the time when Cha-yoriai and Rinkan-chaji were greatly simplified and incorporated into wabi-cha. We can find the tradition in the names of some of the implements for wabi-cha. An implement to boil water was then called furo and the screen to be placed around furo was called furo-saki-byobu (folding screen around a hearth). The implement to boil water (furo) sounds the same as bath (furo) in Japanese.
Wabi-cha of Juko was developed into an established art by Joo and then by Rikyu. However, I suspect monks and local businessmen in Nara and Kyoto continued enjoying the combination of bath and tea.
My father ran a Japanese kimono shop in Kyoto and was one of the self-employed businessmen. He demolished the warehouse and connected our garden with the Japanese kimono belt shop located next to us. He covered the tearoom of Fushin-an style with cedar barks. When night tea party was anticipated, he always said, “Why don’t you have a bath?” or “We have a good bath for you.”
There are different kinds of tea in Japan, usu-cha (thin tea), koi-cha (thick tea) and sen-cha (unground leaf tea). My friends sometimes put works of Giacometti and play koto following an example of Gyokudo with sen-cha. We should enjoy tea ceremony more freely without being too much bound by rules. Masakazu Izumi of Ura-Senke designed and installed multiple tearooms in a big ballroom and served French cuisine in glassware. If someone would build a teahouse with a bathroom, I would like to be a guest and say, “What a good bath and delicious tea!”