500 Desserts or Rediscovering Rikyu and the Beginnings of the Japanese Tea Ceremony

500 Desserts: From Simple Classics to Wickedly Indulgent Treats

Author: Ann Kay

Choose from classics such as profiteroles, lemon meringue pie and apple crumble to experiment with more exotic international dishes like tiramisu or brandy-soaked borracho cake from Spain.

Book about: Magic Salsa or Roots and Recipes

Rediscovering Rikyu and the Beginnings of the Japanese Tea Ceremony

Author: Herbert Plutschow

Rediscovering Rikyu presents the first comprehensive, book-length study of the celebrated Japanese tea master Rikyu (1522-91), considered the father of the Japanese Tea Ceremony (cha-no-yu). For the first time, Rikyu's tea is considered as a profoundly important political as well as a socio-religious ritual in response to the dramatic changes taking place in the country at large: the hundred-year civil war -- Sengoku or Warring States period -- was finally coming to an end and the process of political unification under the strong military leadership of Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-98) had begun. A key focus of the book is the author's research into why Rikyu's tragic suicide was a necessary outcome of the emerging conflict between ritual, art and politics. The study also provides remarkable insights into a sixteenth-century Japanese sense of beauty commonly called wabi -- a simple, often austere beauty displayed in tea to unite host and guests as equals. In addition, Rediscovering Rikyu provides new and interesting insight into what links Rikyu's wabi tea with Zen Buddhism and ultimately to ritual and the state.

Table of Contents:

1	Introduction	1
2	The Setting For Tea	15
3	Rikyu's Life and Thought	74
4	Rikyu's Tea	110
5	Rikyu's Disciples	143
6	Rikyu's Legacy	165
7	Rikyu's Displays	184
8	Afterwords	191
	Endnotes	195
	Bibliography	209
	Index	217