Momoyama: gold, castles and the art of tea

The warlords who unified Japan built castles with sliding doors in gold leaf – while the tea master Sen no Rikyū celebrated the plainest clay bowl.

Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan after a century of war. They built huge castles such as Azuchi, Osaka and Himeji, and their halls were decorated with screens and sliding doors in gold leaf.

Kanō Eitoku painted gigantic trees and lions on gold, and Hasegawa Tōhaku painted both gold screens and the misty ink pines, one of Japan's best-loved works.

At the same time Sen no Rikyū refined the tea ceremony. His small teahouses of clay and bamboo used simple, hand-made raku bowls – an aesthetic diametrically opposed to the splendour of the castles. In 1591 Hideyoshi finally forced Rikyū to commit suicide.