売茶翁

Baisaō

1675-1763

b. Hasuike, Saga Prefecture

I’ve got the whole universe,

in this tea caddy of mine.

A buddhist monk of the ōbaku school of Zen. which specialised in brewing loose leaf green tea by briefly simmering the leaves in water. The simplicity of sencha was in contrast to formality of Chanoyu which utilised powdered tea. In 1724 Baisao left the monastic life and set up ‘Tsusentei’. A small tea shop in Higashiyama on the banks of Kamo river in Kyoto for the remainder of his life. Around 1735, Baisaō wandered around various scenic sites in Kyoto selling tea. Interesting to note that the type of tea he served was ‘Sencha’ which was unfamiliar at that time as most people were used to powdered tea. This simple gesture would prove to be the humble beginning of the popularity of Sencha in Japan, ultimately manifesting into the creation of Senchadō.

Baisaō did not charge a fixed price for the sencha he brewed for the passerby, instead collected donations in a bamboo tube. With basket on his back Baisao stoped by wherever he pleased. He used tea from an acquaintance, a tea grower in Uji, which was developing new production method for the simmered tea and named it ‘Sencha’.

in 1745 as he became aware of his increasing fame, Baisaō stoped selling tea and opted for a simple, quiet life. At this point, sencha was growing in popularity, to avoid the creation of a ritualised sencha tradition, he stepped into the shadow. He believed his own spirit dwelled in his tea implements and did not want them to fall into the hands of a collector. Shortly before his death, Baisaō burned all of this tea implements in a conscious effort to not leave any treasured objects, which would be cherished and passed down as in the Chanoyu tradition he so detested as an empty formality. He wrote.. ‘Priests who performed the chanoyu tea ceremony were as far from the example of the ancient sages as heaven from earth’