Who they were
Sen no Rikyu, the perfecter of the way of tea, was a merchant’s son from the port city of Sakai. He served as tea master to Oda Nobunaga and then Toyotomi Hideyoshi, becoming one of Hideyoshi’s closest advisers.
What they did
Rikyu brought wabi-cha — tea of austere simplicity — to its full form: tiny rustic tea rooms (his two-mat Taian survives), rough raku tea bowls, and the crawling-in entrance (nijiriguchi) that made every guest equal. In 1591 Hideyoshi ordered him to commit seppuku; the reason remains debated by historians, with theories ranging from a statue placed above the ruler’s head to court intrigue.
Legacy
His descendants founded the three Sen schools of tea, which continue today. The aesthetic of wabi — imperfection, austerity, quiet — shaped Japanese taste far beyond tea.