Sowaryu is one of the schools of chanoyu, the way of tea, founded by KANAMORI Sowa in Edo period.
Sowa was born as the heir of the lord of the Hida Takayama(Gifu Pref.) castle. However, he was disowned by his father, after that, he moved to Kyoto and joined into the salon, which hosted by emperor GO-MIZUNOO, and Sowa's style of the tea had a lot of influence on the emperor's court at all.
It is said that Sowa-style would has been influenced by SEN Doan or FURUTA Oribe, moreover, there are lots of similarity among Enshuryu, Ueda-Sokoryu and Yabunouchiryu which have been belonging to the schools of Oribe nowadays.
Sowaryu was also called 'Hime Sowa (Princess Sowa)' because Sowa has favored elegant and graceful tea utencils, and, he treated and directed NONOMURA Ninsei preferentially as the potter of the way of tea. This byname can picture that its procedure must be womanly, but according to Sowa's anecdote on the books, he imposed on stringent way of making tea, which shows that his origin was based on buke, the samurai clan.
Sowa is one of the pioneer of the tea with his whole new aesthetics for the utensils and so on, he has initiated chanoyu style on the code of Yusoku-kojitsu(well-versed in usages or practices of the court or military households), depends on the status of the people in the imperial court. His style has had the big influenced on that era.
On this launcher of the Sowaryu tea school official site, it would be greatly appreciated if this occasion served as a starting point for your interest in KANAMORI Sowa and the Sowaryu tea school.