What was Naosuke Ii studying during his years at Umoregi-no-ya? His studies covered a wide variety of subjects including traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, different styles of poetry, Zen Buddhism, Noh, classical literature, military sciences, and sword art. Not only did he dedicate his time to academic studies, but Naosuke also practiced martial arts.

One of the subjects he poured a significant amount of his time into was Japanese tea ceremony practices, which are also known as sadō. Naosuke primarily studied Sekishū-style sadō, but he felt that the existing styles didn’t allow him to showcase his ideas about tea traditions. So, at the age of 31, he started up his own style of sadō. He penned an introductory guide to his new style, which stated the following ideas:

“Practicing sadō exercises the spirit.”
“True sado does not discriminate between rich and poor. It is a form of training done by people in their natural states who work to maintain a peaceful spirit while drinking tea.”
“It is immoral that sadō tools and tea rooms have become a luxury that the wealthy indulge in for pleasure or entertainment.”

These teachings were revolutionary at the time. Naosuke’s years living frugally at Umoregi-no-ya led him to pursue magnanimity, which can be seen in these beliefs of his.

Naosuke is also the creator of the Japanese four-character idiom ichi-go ichi-e, which can be translated to “one time, one meeting.” He’d also written that other concepts were important, such as dokuza kannen and yojō zanshin, which are the ideas that once guests have left, a host should reflect on the ceremony of that day.

Naosuke believed that both hosts and guests should part ways with reluctance while still giving each other a proper farewell. He wrote that the host should continue to see the guests off until they were out of view. Then, the host was to return to their tea room and sit before the hearth to reflect on how they had a once in a lifetime experience, which followed the idea of ichi-go ichi-e. Then, the host was to prepare tea for himself to be enjoyed in silence while lost in thought.

Naosuke didn’t discriminate against others based on gender, social status, or wealth, and invited a wide demographic of people to his home for tea. This was quite rare for this time period. It would be interesting to hear the thoughts and reflections of those who were invited to tea by Naosuke.