Exit Xavier Park, and as you follow the Kishu Kaido Highway south, why not stop along the way at Sugahara Shrine? Here is a well said to have been a favorite of Sen-no-Rikyū’s own master, Takeno Jōō.

Have you heard the phrase “wabi-sabi”? It refers to the appreciation of the imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. The phrase is related to “waka” poetry, of which Takeno Jōō was an aficionado. It’s said he carried the essence of waka poetry into his tea ceremonies.

For instance, you might change how you project your voice when you sing at a banquet hall versus singing in the bath. Takeno Jōō classified his tea parties into “wabi-shiki,” large-scale, and “sabi-shiki,” small-scale variants. Here’s a fun fact: the Japanese word for the most impactful part of a song is “sabi,” and it’s said that the name's origins come from this very classification.

Each variant had its own order of events, utensils, and manners. “Wabi-sabi,” Japan’s most representative aesthetic, began here in Sakai.