Letter by Hosokawa Yusai 細川幽斎筆書状ホソカワユウサイヒツショジョウ

Description

Hosokawa Yusai (1534-1610) was a daimyo (warlord; landed general) and tea aficionado of the Momoyama Period. Born to Mibuchi Harukazu, he was originally named Fujitaka. Yusai and Genshi were his pen names. Yusai was later adopted by Hosokawa Mototsune and served Ashikaga Yoshiharu. When Yoshiaki’s brother, Ashikaga Yoshihide, passed away, Yusai planned to institute Yoshiaki to be the next shogun. He later sided with General Oda Nobunaga and was given a fief in Nagaoka and Tango provinces (both are currently located in Kyoto). But when the coup d’etat broke out at Honnoji Temple (Nobunaga was murdered by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide), Yusai and his son Tadaoki shaved off their hair, a gesture of innocence and neutrality. Thereafter, he followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then was given an important post by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa military government. Yusai was a learned scholar both in Japanese classics and Chinese prose and had a prominent position in waka and renga poetry, as well as the art of tea. He was one of the most highly trained intellectual minds of the era. In this letter, he mentions that the tea presented him by the tea dealer Kambayashi of Uji was excellent. It is addressed to Kambayashi Nyudo, most likely Kambayashi Hisamochi (1542-1606), who supervised all the tea dealers of Uji in those days. (Tea contests were favorite pursuits among connoisseurs. Participants tried to identify the growing area – whether it was from Toganowo or not – of a particular tea or name the tea manufacturer from the taste, aroma and color.) The strokes flow with naturalness, showing what an achieved calligrapher Yusai was.