Takeno Jōō

Who was Takeno Jōō?

Takeno Jōō was a master of the tea ceremony and a well-known merchant during the Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japan. His name has come down in Japanese cultural history because he followed Murata Jukō as an early proponent of wabi-cha, and was chanoyu teacher to Sen Rikyū.

It is believed that the family descended from the Takeda clan who were guardians of Wakasa province. His father, Nobuhisa, changed the family name to Takeno, and after roaming the country, settled in Sakai, where he built up a thriving business dealing in leather goods used by warriors. Nobuhisa married the daughter of a priest of Kōfukuji temple in Yamato Province, Jōō's mother.

While carrying on the family business in Sakai, Jōō, whose common name was Shingorō, did religious duty as an attendant at the Honganji temple in the Yamashina region of Kyoto. In 1532, he took the tonsure and came to be known as Jōō. Evidence shows that until the age of thirty-five, he aspired to become a teacher of renga. In Kyoto, he was able to learn the secrets of waka from the aristocratic master of the art, Sanjōnishi Sanetaka. Being extremely wealthy, Jōō was able to amass an impressive collection of classical works on the art of waka.