와비차(侘び茶)의 禪세계 고찰

Abstract

Around the mid to late Muromachi 室町 period, internal disturbances led Japan to experience over a hundred years of intense chaos called the Warring States Period, which continued until Toyotomi Hideyoshi took control of the country. In such a confused state, the tea culture flourished as a means of a political apparatus for power holders and as a pretext for stabilizing public sentiment. Wabi tea 侘び茶 refers to a simple, training-oriented tea culture formed under the influence of the then Zen sect. The word wabi (侘, 侘び) was initially used in a somewhat negative sense, but was later transformed into a positive meaning in the course of its inclusion in tea culture. Further, the word came to be associated with Zen and defined as Zen itself by Sen no Rikyū 千利休. For Rikyū wabi meant both the manifestation of enlightenment (Buddha mind) and enlightenment (Buddha world) itself, and he understood that the true wabi tea was attainable only when it functions in correspondence with One Mind 一心. Thus, according to Rikyū, a Zen culture with a new spirit (fundamental essence 理) and matter (external activity 事) was created through the function of “right now” 卽今 which corresponds with One Mind. The tea spirits (culture of fundamental essence) of “Tea and Zen are of one and the same taste 茶禪一味,” “harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility 和敬淸 寂,”“Every encounter occurs only once in a lifetime 一期一會” and the factors containing such spirits, namely various structures and aspects of life in the thatched hut 草庵茶室 (culture of external activity), result from the functions mentioned above. Through wabi tea, Rikyū intended to embody the meaning of Zen, true equality, and peace at the present moment of life.