HA008 Morning Glory - Rikyu's Tea Room

Flowers under a blue sky

Cotton canvas

Acrylic paint

Painting size: 45cm x 60cm

Framing size: 54.5cm x 71.5cm

There are flowers placed inside the room.

The blue sky gradually spreads into the room.

And then, for the first time, I realized that "flowers are like the blue sky."

I wanted to paint the flowers placed in the tea room.

Then, the tea room turned out to be Rikyu's tea room "Taian," which is designated as a national treasure.

The flower that immediately came to mind was a single morning glory.

The story goes that Hideyoshi, having heard rumors that morning glories were blooming beautifully at Rikyu's residence, went to Rikyu's tea ceremony to see them. However, he found not a single morning glory in the garden, and entered the tea room with a displeased expression. There, he found "just one morning glory" arranged in a vase, and was deeply moved by the beauty of its fleeting life.

Rikyu's tea room was only two tatami mats in size.

It is said that Rikyu rejected the extravagant tea ceremony of the past and perfected the "wabi-cha" space, which stripped away all unnecessary elements.

I think Rikyu was an excellent director and producer.

This is the "wabi-cha" space created by Rikyu.

A reckless idea suddenly came to me: to try converting it to color and drawing it.

First, I made sure to thoroughly understand the layout and structure of the tea room before I began drawing.

The actual size was completely ignored.

And that's how this painting's space came to be.