Letter by Katagiri Sekishu
- Person
-
作者片桐石州
- Date
-
制作年 AD17
- Title
- カタギリセキシュウヒツショジョウ
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-002032-0000
- License
- CC BY Images license
- Creditline
-
慶應義塾（センチュリー赤尾コレクション）
- URL
- Classification
- Art
- AI Tagging
- Handwriting Rectangle Font Parallel Monochrome
Katagiri Sekishu (1605-73) was an early Edo Period military general who patronized chanoyu. His name was Sadamasa, but since he was appointed to govern Iwami in 1624, he is often called “Sekishu” meaning the “Lord of Iwami Province.” (Note: “iwa” and “seki” are pronunciation variants of the same Chinese character meaning “stone”.) In 1627, Sekishu inherited his father Sadataka’s estate and became the governor of Yamato Koizumi in Nara (today’s central Yamato Koriyama in Nara Prefecture). He was appointed by the military government to preside over the affairs at Chion-In Temple in Kyoto, so he began living in the city, where he came to associate with the celebrated tea masters of the era, including Kobori Enshu, Kanamori Sowa and Shokado Shojo. Sekishu himself studied chanoyu under Kuwayama Sosen (1560-1632), a follower of the Rikyu School, and went on to master the art, establishing his own style, known as the Sekishu School. He later succeeded Kobori Enshu to become master of tea affairs for the Tokugawa shogunate family.In this letter, Sekishu asks the addressee, Yamada Zayemon, possibly a tobacco merchant, to send him some brown Nagasaki tobacco wrapped in paper. Tobacco smoking, said to have originated with the Indians of Central America, was introduced into Europe at the end of the 15th century by Christopher Columbus. Originally imported for its medicinal effect, tobacco smoking spread rapidly throughout Europe, and by the mid-16th century, tobacco was brought over to Japan by the Spanish and Portuguese trading ships that called on Nagasaki Port. By the early 17th century, smoking was already popular in Japan and tobacco growing had started in Nagasaki. Sekishu’s letter is a good example to evidence this. Although it is a short letter, written in a business-like manner, it is valuable as a document on the practice of tobacco smoking in medieval Japan.
長崎たはこいろのあかきかたかミにつゝミ可相越候かしく廿二山田左衛門殿まいる（花押）
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- Letter by Katagiri Sekishu
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