Tea master. Born in 1546, he was the adopted son of Sen no Rikyu, the son of Rikyu’s future wife Soen. His secular name was Shirozaemon. He was born in 1546 and went by the secular name of Shirozaemon. Shoan was the Buddhist name given by Zen master Haruya Soen. His wife was Kame, daughter of Rikyu. Michiyasu was his brother-in-law of the same age. At the age of 32 or 33, he joined the Senke family along with his mother, and often took lessons from his father to develop his skills. In 1591, at the age of 46, he was executed by his father, and was taken into hiding by Ujisato Gamo in Aizu, but in 1594 he was permitted to return to Kyoto and move his residence to the Honpoji Temple on the Ogawa River, where he laid the foundation for the revival of the Senke Shoin-an. There he laid the foundation for the revival of Senke’s Fushin’ajian. He was granted 500 koku by Ieyasu, but retired in 1596, leaving the house to his son Sotan, who died on September 7, 1614, at the age of 69. His favorite tea houses include Shoan at Shonan-tei in Saiho-ji Temple (Koke-ji Temple) in Kyoto and Rinkaku in Aizuwakamatsu City, and he seems to have had many favorite utensils. Shoan was a prolific waka poet and is known to have composed a poem in response to Ujisato’s poem of resignation, “Furutte mite fukiranu saki ni haitae kashi, aoyanagi no boughs that won’t break in the snow.
