A monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama to early Edo period, Anrakuan was born in 1554. At an early age, he entered Zenrinji Temple of the Seizan School of the Jodo sect and studied under Chisora. Later, he taught in the Chugoku region and built various temples, and then moved on to Risshoji Temple in Mino Province (Gifu Prefecture) and Seiganji Temple in Kyoto, where he became the abbot of Chikurin-in Temple. He was also known as “Drunken Master. He studied the tea ceremony under Oribe Furuta, and in 1623 (Genna 9), at the age of 70, he built a tea ceremony room, Chikando, in Anrakuan in Chikurin-in and enjoyed tea ceremonies, and had a large collection of famous wares. Around 1615, at the request of Shigemune Itakura, the chief magistrate of Kyoto, he wrote hundreds of comical and humorous stories. This is “Kakusui-sho” (“Laughing in the Awake Hollow”). He died in 1642 at the age of 89.
