Portrait of Sen no Rikyū with his Death Poem

This solemn portrait of the revered tea master Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591)—seated on a tatami mat, dressed in the robes of a Buddhist monk, wearing a cloth hat, and holding a closed fan—belies the tragic circumstances it commemorates. Brushed above the portrait is Rikyū’s death poem, composed just before he followed through on the command of the most powerful military leader of the day, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598), to commit ritual suicide (seppuku), on the twenty-eighth day of the second month of 1591 at the warlord’s Jurakudai Palace. Historians still debate over the reasons the megalomaniacal military leader ordered the foremost master of tea to take his own life, though it seems that at least one motive was that Hideyoshi could not tolerate anyone rivaling his own fame and cultural prestige.

For the tragic occasion Rikyū’s composed a “departing this world” poem (jisei no ku), also sometimes referred to as a “bequeathed Buddhist verse” (yuige), the term used for the death poem of a monk, which in this case comprises four lines of four-character Chinese verse and a 31-syllable Japanese waka poem. For this anonymously painted portrait, Rikyū’s death poem was transcribed by Joshinsai Sōsa, the seventh Grand Tea Master of Omotesenke, one of the foremost tea masters of his generation, who restored the fortunes of the family of tea masters. Relevant to understanding the significance of this work, Joshinsai managed to negotiate the acquisition of what was believed to be the only surviving version of Rikyū’s death poem written in the tea master’s own hand. Joshinsai managed to acquire the manuscript from the Fuyuki family, prominent Edo merchants, in time for the 150th anniversary of Rikyū’s death, celebrated in 1740.

Numerous portraits of Rikyū survive from early modern times, since tea masters and practitioners of all schools would occasionally want to display a memorial portrait of the person considered to be the founder of tea as practiced in Japan. Perhaps the most famous of all is the memorial portrait commissioned in 1595, four years after Rikyū’s death, that is attributed to Hasegawa Tōhaku and inscribed by Shun’oku Sōen 春屋宗園 (1529–1611), a Zen master at Daitokuji Temple and one of Rikyū's spiritual advisors. That revered painting—treated almost as though it were a religious icon—is a treasured holding of the Omotesenke school of tea. That work also established the precedent of having portraits of Rikyū inscribed by prominent Zen or tea ceremony masters. Joshinsai’s inscription here, in its somewhat idiosyncratic use of kana characters in the waka poem, can be traced back to an early transcription of Rikyū’s death poem by his grandson Sen Sōtan (1578–1658). Rikyū’s own transcription of his death poem, as mentioned above, is still said to be in the possession of the Omotesenke school, but it has never been placed on public display or made available for study to our knowledge. We can assume that Sōtan’s transcription resembles the original, and has become a revered manuscript in its own right.

The inscription can be deciphered as follows, reading the columns of characters from left to right, reverse of normal order:

[Chinese verse]
人生七十　　　
力圍希咄
吾這宝剣
祖佛共殺

[Waka poem]
提ル　我カ得具そくの　一太刀
今此時そ　天に抛

Jinsei shichijū
Riki-i-ki totsu
waga kono hōken
sobutsu tomo ni korosu

Hissaguru
waga egusoku no
hitotsu tachi
ima konotoki zo
ten ni nage-utsu

In a life of seventy years,
after exerting myself to the limit,
now, with my own sacred sword
I kill both patriarchs and the Buddha.

Carrying in my hands
the only weapon I own—
this one long sword—
and at this moment, alas,
I abandon it to the heavens.

(Trans. John T. Carpenter)