The Jesuit Connection to Japanese Gardens and Tea Ceremony

Notes on João Rodrigues, S.J.(1561-1633) in Japan João Rodrigues, born in Portugal in 1561, traveled to Japan at 14, joined the Jesuit order, and through his fifty-six years in Japan and China became …More
Notes on João Rodrigues, S.J.(1561-1633) in Japan
João Rodrigues, born in Portugal in 1561, traveled to Japan at 14, joined the Jesuit order, and through his fifty-six years in Japan and China became a fluent speaker of Japanese. In Japan, this won him the friendship of nobles, merchants, and rulers, including the powerful shoguns Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Due to his language facility and cultural adroitness, Rodrigues took an active role in diplomatic exchanges and in facilitating the silk trade between China and Japan. Formany years he was the most influential European in Japan.
Rodrigues’ account, entitled Historia, remains an invaluable historical source on Japan, recounting encounters between men belonging to two fundamentally different civilizations. One area of fruitful confluence was the Japanese culture of tea and tea gardens, a topic that he devotes four chapters to. The fact that this cultural exchange took place nearly four centuries ago does not diminish its …More
alfons maria stickler
There was a time that the Jesuits were the proud of our Church.