Maggs Bros.

This is a famous collection of poems and prose by Ko Yugai (aka Baisa-o, 1675-1763), an Obaku monk from Hasuike (Hizen), who was known as the “Father of Sencha tea ceremony.” It was compiled and published by his friends in the month of his death. The opening page contains an impressive portrait of Baisa-o based on a painting by Ito Jakuchu. There is a preface by Kinryu Dojin, which was removed from later printings due to Dojin’s disapproval. The text proper opens with “Biography of Baisa-o” by Omi Jikujo. Baisa-o was the head priest of Hizen Ryutsuji Temple, but after his mother died in 1624 he left the temple in the care of his younger brother and came to Kyoto, where he supported himself by making tea in the Chinese way by steeping the whole leaves in hot water. He was famous for not having a fixed price but leaving it up to the customers to pay what they could afford. His eccentricity, unconventionality, and his life of simple poverty was admired by many of his contemporaries. The work includes a description of famous tea utensils used by him, although he had burned most of them before he died in order to discourage what he felt was useless veneration. Ms. inscription on back pastedown by Hosono Tadatsura (dated 1852) stating that the annotations were written by Jinno Kikuso, a Confucian scholar from the mid-Edo period. This copy comes without a colophon, which was quite common in books before the Kansei reforms of the 1790s which regulated the publishing world. Both digitised copies in the Kyushu University Library and the National Archives (Kobun Shokan) do not have a colophon. Rare. Only three copies in OCLC.