Ōbaku monk Baisaō and the Development of the Sencha Tradition in Edo Period Japan (1603-1868)

Lugavtsova Alena Petrovna PhD in History Department of Philosophy, Culturology and Religious Studies, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 670047, Russia, Republic of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, Sakhyanova str., 6 alena.karnap@mail.ru Other publications by this author

During the Edo period (1603-1868), a new Buddhist teaching appeared in Japan – the school of:Baku (?)), which represented the third direction of Zen Buddhism along with the Rinzai and So schools:that:. Its founder was the Chinese Buddhist monk Yinyuan Longqi (, Yap. Ingen Ryu:ki, 1592-1673), who arrived on the islands with his disciples in 1654. In 1661, with the permission of the Japanese authorities, they built the temple of Mampuku-ji in Uji, Kyoto, which became the base for the spread of the new school throughout Japan ^{[1, p. 285; 7]}. Monks About:Baku, in fact, were "transmitters" of the cultural ideals of Minsk China to the Japanese through preaching their teachings and active creative activity. The researchers note that the creative activity of the monks About:Baku (especially at an early stage) had the most direct influence on the culture of the Edo period, contributing to the emergence of so-called "Chinese styles" in painting, calligraphy, architecture ^{[10; 11, p. 10]}. School About:Baku has presented Japan with many creative figures – painters, calligraphers, architects, etc. One of them was Baisao: (, 1675-1763).  He was a monk of the O:Baku school, although he did not adhere to the monastic lifestyle, and became famous primarily due to his travels in Kyoto and the sale of tea. Although he was most famous for the tea trade, Baisao: he was also famous for his simple but expressive poems – he was fluent in Chinese, was skilled in both poetry and prose, and often wrote poems for entertainment or as a gift to friends. His powerful, soulful style of calligraphy took a lot from the calligraphy of Minsk intellectuals. The admiration that Baisao inspired, most likely, was partly due to his exotic appearance. In the preface to "Poems and Notes of an old tea merchant" (), a collection of works by Baisao:, which was compiled by his friends, he was described as follows: "He was gray-haired, white-bearded, fair-faced and extremely calm. His robes were distinguished by modesty and carelessness. His character to some extent could be understood by looking at his face, which clearly showed an addiction to sake" ^{[5, pp. 73-74]}. These features can be traced in the portraits of Baisao: the brushes of his contemporaries – artists Ito: Dzyakutyu: (, 1716-1800) and Ike no Taiga (, 1723-1776), who mainly depicted him sitting or standing next to his tray, invariably in "crane attire" (white clothes with black edging, in color resembling the plumage of a Japanese crane), traditional the clothes of the Taoists. In the formal portrait of the authorship of Dzyakutyu:, where he depicted Baisao: like a saint, his long hair and beard hang untidily, his chin protrudes forward, and his mouth is slightly open in a half-toothed smile (Fig. 1) ^{[5, pp. 73-74]}.

Fig. 1. Portrait of Baisao: on the bridge. Author - Ito: Dzyakutyu:, 1787

Baisao activities: The sale of tea, which became the meaning of his whole life, contributed to the popularization of the Chinese method of brewing sentia leaf tea () and led to the creation of the sentia-do ceremony (), which actually opposed the existing tea tradition of cha-no yu (, brewing powdered green tea). In the Baisao method: whole tea leaves were placed in a kettle of boiling water and simmered over low heat for a short period of time. This style was different from matcha tea (), the most common tea in Japan at that time, which consisted of tea leaves ground into a fine powder. The Japanese traditional tea ceremony cha-no yu () also originally originated as one of the forms of meditation practice of Buddhist monks. According to various sources, the beginning of tea consumption in Japan dates back to the VII–VIII centuries AD. Tea was imported to Japan from the mainland. In the XII century, the monk Eisai (1141-1215) promoted the introduction of tea drinking at court by presenting the Shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo with a book on preserving health with tea ^[6]. By the 13th century, drinking tea had become commonplace among the samurai class, and since the Azuchi-Momoyama era (1568/1573–1600/1603), the Japanese tea ceremony began to develop in a different way from the Chinese, following Japanese aesthetic principles. The true heyday of cha-no yu is associated with the name of the master Seng Rikyu: (,, 1522-1591), who developed the attributes of the ceremony, formalized etiquette, the sequence of actions of participants and even determined which conversations should be conducted at what moment of the ceremony in order to create a mood of calm, withdrawal from worries and striving for truth and beauty. The master founded his own Senke School, which became the embodiment of the four main principles of the Tea Path: harmony (?), reverence (?), purity (?) and silence, peace (?) ^[9]. However, by the XVII century, despite the authority and centuries-old history, cha-no yu, in addition to fans, had gained a lot of opponents, and the alternative method of tea drinking offered by Baisao:, appealed to many of them. "Baisao:" is only one of the names of the master, taken by him during his wanderings, it can be translated as "an old man selling tea."

Baisao: He was originally from the small town of Hasuike, Hizen Province (now Saga Prefecture) in the north of Kyushu. Like many of his contemporaries, Baisao: changed many names during his life. As a child, his name was Shibayama Kikusen (), he was the third son of five children in the family of a doctor who served the Nabeshima clan. Baisao 's father: he was well educated – he wrote poetry, was versed in calligraphy, the art of tea ceremony and making incense, which undoubtedly affected the education of his sons. However , when Baisao: he was nine, his father passed away. At the age of eleven, the boy became a novice in Ryu:shin-ji, the temple of the doctrine of:Baku is near his house, and took the monastic name Gekkai Gense: () ^{[2, p. 5-7]}. Baisao 's mentor: There was a monk about:Baku Karin Do:ryu: (, 1634-1720), a Japanese monk who studied directly with three Chinese abbots of the Mumpuku-ji, including Ingen himself. Together with his mentor Baisao: he first visited Mumpuku-ji in 1687-1688 to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the birthday of the fourth abbot of the temple, Dokutan Xie:Kay (, 1628-1706), the spiritual mentor of his teacher ^{[5, p. 69]}. Although Baisao: At that time he was still too young to join the practice with the rest of the monks of the monastery, he was allowed to participate in the morning and evening sutra recitation ceremonies, and on the whole he made an extremely favorable impression on the abbot. Subsequently, Karin and his disciple traveled around Kyoto for several years, including visiting the Ko:zen-ji temple, famous for the fact that it was there that Me:e (1173-1232), its abbot and an outstanding Buddhist figure, laid one of the first tea plantations in the country ^{[2, p. 8]}.

In 1696, when he was twenty-two years old, despite a debilitating intestinal illness, Baisao: I went on a journey, deciding to join the wisdom of famous monks all over the country. His wanderings led him to the city of Sendai in the north of Japan, where he spent several years, after which he returned to Lampuku-ji in 1703. Some later records indicate that before this Baisao: I could stay in Nagasaki, where I watched the life of local Chinese immigrants and learned more about sencha – leaf tea. Although it is most likely that he learned about this type of tea back in the Mumpuku-ji ^{[5, p. 69]}. In addition to religious practice, the monks of Baku, as Ingen pointed out, studied classical Chinese literature and philosophy from sixty–one treatises that he brought with him to Japan - these were books on history, philosophy, religion and poetry, which included the "Tea Canon" of Lu Yu (kit., 733-804). In accordance with Chinese Chan ritual practices , many ceremonies about:Baku included a tea party, where boiled leaf tea was used, which the monks themselves drank at informal meetings and at meetings with parishioners. By the Ming era (1368-1644), Chinese temples had abandoned the preparation of powdered tea, instead of which leaf tea was used, but the old tradition continued in Japanese temples. The Buddhist monks of Ming China, to which the monks of O:Baku also belonged, did not limit the drinking of tea to religious ceremonies only, but instead freely used it as a spirit-stimulating drink on the path of enlightenment. Very often he became the object of meditation in their ko:anah (, Chinese gong'an – irrational questions or parables-riddles, reflection on which was supposed to give the student an impulse to understand the essence of the teaching and achieve enlightenment) and inspired them to create poems.

As we are given to understand by several calligraphic scrolls created by the monks of O:Baku, the Chan patriarchs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) also used tea as an object for gong'an. Although it was mentioned there solely as a way of focusing the mind to achieve enlightenment, its very appearance suggests that leaf tea was part of the monastic life, everyday routine. Ingan's worldly records also bear witness to this. The custom of the monks About:Baku drinking leaf tea at "odd hours" between meals and evenings was often mentioned by their famous Japanese contemporaries who visited temples about:Baku – most likely, because the followers of Rinzai did not have such a habit ^{[3, p. 47]}. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, leaf tea became closely associated with O:Baku and especially with Ingen. Samurai Morikawa Kiroku (, 1656-1715), a disciple of the great poet Matsuo Basho (, 1644-1694), mentioned the "tea Ingen" (, "Ingen thee") in his work "On the customs" (), anthology of haiku poets of the school of bass, so the probability that Baicao: came to know and love Sencha with monks On:baku ^{[4, p. 35]}. Returning to Lampuku-ji, he served in the temple as a steward until 1723, when Give: Genko: (, 1676-1768) became its abbot. A few years before that, his mentor Karin had died, who before his death wanted to give him the post of abbot of Ryu:shin-ji, but Baisao: refused, not considering himself worthy of such a position, because he believed that "he had neither wisdom nor other virtues" ^{[2, pp. 12-13]}. In 1724, Baisao: finally giving up monastic life, went to Kyoto, where he lived later, around 1735 he began selling tea in various picturesque places of the city, which he did for the next twenty years.

Baisao himself: emphasized that, despite the fact that merchants were despised and considered the lowest class in society, he realized his occupation as an honorable one, giving him the privilege to live in wandering and contemplation, like a Chinese sage. Even the process of tea trading performed by Baisao: He was special: he named his small portable tray Tsu:sentei (, "pavilion on the way to the immortals"), and the bamboo basket where he put his simple belongings – Senka (, "shelter of the sages") ^{[5, p. 70]}. Despite the abundance of powerful friends and admirers, Baisao: apparently lived almost in poverty, although this hardly marred his happiness. He did not demand any specific amount from customers, instead asking them to pay as much as they could by throwing coins into a hollow bamboo tube that he placed behind his stall. Most often, the money collected was enough to buy some rice, sometimes even with miso paste and soy sauce, but it also happened that Baisao: after a bad day I had to go begging ^{[2, p. 4]}. However, this did not change Baisao's approach: – a sign next to the tray said that he was sorry that he could not sell tea for less than for free. Like the scholars of Kogaku-ha ("the school of ancient science"), who extolled classical Confucianism and intended to revive the atmosphere in which the sages of antiquity lived, Baisao: he sought to revive interest in the original spiritual benefits of tea drinking. Along his Baisao stall: he hung a sign on which the hieroglyphs "seifu" () were inscribed, designed to express the true philosophical and aesthetic qualities, which, as he believed, were enclosed in the sentya. He used this expression as an abbreviation of "seifuryu:" () – "purity and grace" ^{[5, p. 71]}. This is how Baisao described the preparation of tea: his friend Daiten Kenjo: (, 1719-1801): "He set up his brazier, then poured clean running water into the kettle with a pumpkin ladle, and after a few moments steam began to rise from the boiling tea, soaring into the sky in curls. When he revived the fire in the brazier with a fan, a magical fragrance filled the air. Those who were lucky enough to share a tea party with him marveled at the extraordinary sweetness of the smell" ^{[5, p. 71]}.

Although leaf tea appeared in Japan long before the birth of Baisao:, the one he traded in became famous for its aroma. Whether this was caused by the aura of mystery that enveloped the old merchant, his special method of making tea, the water he used, or the kind of tea itself is unknown. Baisao 's Poem: "Brewing tea under the pines on a summer day" makes it clear that his tea may have been from China ^{[5, p. 71]}:

I enjoy idleness

Long days of September

Near the fragrant brazier

Under ten thousand pines;

Sweltering heat

The vain human world

Does not reach my shelter;

I don't need to look

Lost Landscapes

The world of sages.

I'm pouring water

From the pure streams of the Otova River,

And my tea grew up in China itself,

He was sent from his homeland.

The greatest joy of life –

Getting rid of worries.

Although people are pointing fingers, giggling:

"The old man has gone crazy on his tea!"^{[2, p. 131]}.Indeed, Baisao: could have ordered tea from China thanks to connections in his hometown that could lead him to trade routes, but it is unlikely that the poor merchant constantly used expensive imported tea in his stall, despite the support of fans and influential friends.

Most likely, he brewed high-quality Japanese tea, which was grown for matcha in Uji and Shiragaki. This tea could well have retained its flavor during the preparation of sentya by the Baisao method: when the leaves were thrown into boiling water, and therefore the kettle was allowed to boil again ^{[5, p. 71]}. By 1737, sentya had become so popular that Nagatani So:en (, 1681-1778), engaged in tea cultivation in Uji and a friend of Baisao:, invented a method for producing leaf tea of a delicate jade-green shade, which he also called sentya. Nagatani selected the best young leaves, soaked them in water, steamed them to shorten the fermentation time and dried them on a brazier. This new technique replaced the previous one, when a mixture of old leaves and hard cuttings was roasted in the oven. In 1742, Baisao: visited him and was delighted with the special sweetness of the resulting tea, highly appreciating the efforts of So:en ^{[2, p. 50]}.Baisao:

he himself saw tea as a path to spiritual enlightenment, which he repeatedly pointed out in his poems. Trading sentya in the most picturesque places of Kyoto, he sought to revive interest in the original spiritual benefits of tea drinking. Explaining the prestige of seng by the authority of Chinese cultural traditions, he actually linked tea preferences with political and ideological issues of modernity. Moreover, in his writings, he openly claimed that sentya surpasses cha-no yu, because it gives an opportunity to join the lost wisdom of the intellectuals of ancient China and reveals the long-forgotten essence of the preparation of the sacred drink, which in the Japanese version was reduced to a thoughtless set of certain actions and objects ^{[5, p. 72]}. The traditional Japanese tea ceremony was mercilessly criticized for excessively strict rules and formalized etiquette, for the need to organize special meetings, aesthetics that "glorifies poverty" and contributes to the blurring of social boundaries, and "oppressive", "artificial", "suffocating" atmosphere ^{[5, p. 76]}. The first to write about the superiority of sentya over cha-no yu was Ingen's Japanese disciple, the monk Gattan Do:te: (, 1636-1713). He argued that, although the sages of ancient Japan really understood what spiritual treasures were hidden in tea drinking, as soon as cha-no yu found its stringy formal rituals and became popular among the samurai class, it ceased to be a way to reveal the wonderful properties of tea, turning into a show-off for the elite. He insisted that only monks About:Baku and their worthy heirs remained faithful to the true nature of tea drinking, enjoying the excellent taste of the drink of the sages brewed in a simple teapot in the middle of a modest hut. Following the traditions of Chinese intellectuals who brewed tea for themselves, indulging in fine arts, be it poetry or calligraphy, temples about:Baku did not become the centers of new tea ceremonies and did not build special pavilions for the sentai, which were famous for the tradition of cha-no yu and the temples of Rinzai. In addition, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, cha-no yu had acquired a strong association with the Tokugawa shogunate, whose rulers required vassals to participate in tea ceremonies according to proper etiquette. Some Japanese Confucian scholars, as well as adherents of Taoism, began to regard the tea ceremony as too pretentious and too strongly tied to the ruling elite, people from the samurai elite criticized cha-no yu for blurring the boundaries of classes, mixing samurai and non-noble people ^{[3, pp. 47-49]}. Against this background, sentya, which could be prepared individually, including just for their own pleasure, according to the customs of the ancient sages of China, and which could be drunk in nature, while enjoying its beauty and the taste of tea, looked more advantageous in their eyes. In addition, fans of the new method of tea drinking believed that sentya not only helps to achieve enlightenment, but is also just good for health and good spirits, which positively affected the growth of its popularity. Brewing sencha for all of them actually became a symbol of passive resistance to the existing regime and boring traditions, and many of the fans of sencha naturally formed an enthusiastic group of fans of Baisao:, who preached the superiority of the Chinese method of brewing leaf tea.

In 1745, at the age of seventy, Baisao: renounced his monasticism and changed his name to Ko: Yu:gai (). He stopped selling tea in 1755 because severe back pain no longer allowed him to carry a tray and walk around the city for a long time. Realizing his fame and hoping to avoid creating a ritualized tradition of sencha, as suffocating as the official cha-no yu ceremony, which he so often condemned, at the age of eighty, Baisao burned his tea-making accessories so that they would not become soulless toys in other people's collections ^{[2, p. 4]}. It was a challenge to the tradition of cha-no yu, where the items owned by famous masters were carefully preserved – they became real treasures. Most of Baisao's burned things: most likely, were made of the most ordinary materials, but they were the ones he used in his portable stall. However, Baisao: he kept some valuable tea accessories for him as souvenirs for his closest friends. After burning everything that connected him with his life's work, Baisao: locked the doors of his house and refused to receive visitors, deciding to spend the rest of his days alone, dying at the age of eighty-eight ^{[2, p. 114]}.

After Baisao's death: despite the symbolic destruction of the tea ware by the master, a codified sentia tea ceremony soon appeared based on his methods. His friend Kimura Kenkado: (,, 1736-1802), a prominent scholar and art collector, published detailed descriptions and illustrations of his tea ware. Kimura was also a craftsman who created copies of some samples of burnt utensils ^{[8, pp. 352-354]}. He and other friends of Baisao: they contributed to the veneration of the old merchant by his life's work and wrote detailed instructions on brewing whole-leaf tea, thanks to which today Baisao: he is considered one of the first masters of brewing sentya tea. Despite the fact that he eventually moved away from the monastic way of life, there is no doubt that it was the teaching of Baku, which actually personified a corner of Minsk China in Japan, that determined his further life path associated with the Chinese tea tradition. It can be said that it was his active activity in spreading tea culture in Japan, in which Baisao himself reflected his spiritual ideals, that led to the creation of a full-fledged alternative to the cha-no yu ceremony, thanks to which many of his contemporaries and their descendants fell in love with tea drinking in the spirit of the Chinese sages of antiquity. Although the master himself opposed the two tea traditions to each other, history has preserved both, and sentya, to whom Baisao: he devoted his life, rightfully and still enjoys the love of the Japanese.