This is a record of tea ceremonies held by Hisamasa, Hisayoshi, and Hisashige, three generations of the wealthy merchant Matsuya Genzaburo, commonly known as “Matsuya” in Nara. It is said that Hisashige compiled the records of tea ceremonies by selecting other records from the family history. Hisamasa’s account covers the period from 1533 to 1596, Hisayoshi’s from 1586 to 1626, and Hisashige’s from 1604 to 1650, making it a valuable record that spans 120 years. Matsuya had started his career as a Shinto priest painter at Todaiji Hachiman and gradually built up his wealth, and at the time of Hisayuki, he studied under Harima Furuichi, a disciple of Shuko, who had already given him the famous Matsumoto kagashu, Xu no Shirasagi-e, and Zonsei no Naga-bon, all of which were formerly in Shuko’s possession. Hisamasa died on April 4, 1598, at the age of 78. Hisayoshi, his son, died in 1633.
Hisashige died in August 1652 at the age of 86. This book was called “Matsuya’s Writing,” “Matsuya’s Diary,” “Domon’s Writing,” and other names, but Nagashima Fukutaro decided to call it “Matsuya Kai-ki,” and it is included in Volume IX of “The Complete Collection of Tea Ceremony Classics. Hisashige also compiled four other tea ceremony records related to Matsuya: Rikyu’s biography, Oribe’s biography, Sanko’s biography, and Muneho’s biography, which were published by Yonetaro Matsuyama as “Chado Shiso Densho” (Biographies of the Four Founders of the Tea Ceremony). Matsuya Meimono-shu” and “Shunjaku-shu” were also compiled by Hisashige. His descendant, Matsuya Motoaki, also published a five-volume “Chayu Hisho” (Tea Ceremony Secrets) in 1738. The generations of Matsuya were proud of their tea ceremony lineage, which was passed down from generation to generation by Shukoh with the possession of three famous tea utensils, but from the An’ei (1772-81) and Bunka (1804-18) eras, they gradually fell into decline. (The Complete Collection of Tea Ceremony Classics, 9)
