It is said that, in ancient China in 2737 BC, under the rule of emperor Shen Nung, tea was discovered. Legend has it that the emperor was a skilled ruler, creative scientist and a patron of the arts who, among other things, required that all water be boiled before drinking as a health precaution.
During a rest stop, while traveling one summer day, the emperor's servants began to boil water, as required, for them to drink. Dried leaves from a nearby bush fell into the boiling water. The emperor, being a scientist, found the new liquid intriguing and decided to try it. The emperor found this new drink refreshing and thus, tea was discovered.
Many years later tea spread into every aspect of Chinese culture. The first book on tea was written in China by a man by the name of Lu Yu. Having been orphaned as a child and raised by Buddhist monks, rebelling against their ways, and finding that his life lacked the meaning craved, Lu Yu went into 5 years of seclusion. During this time he became practiced in the various cultivation and preparation methods of tea and eventually codified them. For this he was, in his own lifetime, projected into sainthood. It was this form of tea service that Zen Buddhist missionaries would later introduce to imperial Japan.
After seeing the impact of tea on religious meditation in China, a Buddhist priest by the name of Yeisel brought the first seeds to Japan. For this, he became known as, in Japan, the "Father of Tea". Tea in Japan would always be associated with Zen Buddhism and spread rapidly from royal court to other sections of Japanese society. Elevating into an art form, the Japanese tea ceremony was created. Special tea houses were built, cultural and artistic hostesses, Geisha, began to specialize in the presentation of the tea ceremony.
Eventually though, as tea gained momentum and excitement, the purity of the original Zen concept was lost. Tea tournaments were created where the wealthy would compete against each other for silk, armour and jewelry, making it the furthest thing from the original intended Zen attitude of the ceremony.
Ikkyu, Murata Shuko and Sen-no Rikkyu were the three great Zen priests who restored the Japanese tea ceremony (cah-no-yu or the hot water for tea) to its original place in Japanese society.
