Historedia
Asia PacificEvent

Death of Sen no Rikyū

When
1591
Where
Jurakudai palace residence
Episodes
1

In 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the tea master Sen no Rikyū to commit seppuku. Rikyū died at his residence within the Jurakudai palace in Kyoto on April 21, ending his role as Hideyoshi's tea master.

Episodes

  1. April 21, 1591 · Jurakudai palace residenceSeppuku Order and Execution

    Hideyoshi ordered Rikyū to commit seppuku, which he performed at his Kyoto residence.

Background and detail

Background. Sen no Rikyū served as tea master to Oda Nobunaga and later to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was a central figure in the development of the wabi-cha tradition, emphasizing rustic simplicity and directness in the tea ceremony.

The Order for Seppuku. Hideyoshi ordered Rikyū to commit seppuku, though the specific reasons remain uncertain. Rikyū carried out the order at his residence within Hideyoshi's Jurakudai palace in Kyoto, dying at the age of seventy.

People involved

Sources

  1. Sen no Rikyū Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-14
  2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.