Who Was Oda Uraku? Rikyu's Disciple and the Tea Master Behind Jo-an
Oct 02, 2026
Quick answer: Oda Uraku (織田有楽, 1547–1621), born Oda Nagamasu and also known as Urakusai, was the younger brother of Oda Nobunaga, a warrior, tea master and founder of the Uraku tradition of chanoyu. Omotesenke says he studied tea under Sen no Rikyū and notes that some tea documents include him among the Rikyū Shichitetsu instead of Furuta Oribe. His most famous surviving architectural legacy is Jo-an, the 1618 tea room now preserved at Urakuen in Inuyama and designated a National Treasure.
Who was Oda Uraku?
He was born Oda Nagamasu in 1547 into the Oda family of Owari Province.
Omotesenke identifies him directly as the younger brother of Oda Nobunaga. Later in life he became best known by the tea name Uraku or Urakusai.
Did he learn tea from Sen no Rikyū?
Yes.
Omotesenke’s glossary states that Uraku learned chanoyu from Sen no Rikyū.
This places him in the same broad warrior-disciple world as Gamō Ujisato, Takayama Ukon, Hosokawa Sansai and Furuta Oribe.
Was Oda Uraku one of the Rikyū Shichitetsu?
Sometimes.
The standard Omotesenke seven list gives Furuta Oribe as the seventh member, but Omotesenke explicitly notes that some tea documents substitute Oda Uraku.
Uraku is therefore best described as the most important alternate member of the traditional group rather than either automatically “inside” or “outside” every historical list.
Did Uraku establish his own tea tradition?
Yes.
Omotesenke identifies him as the founder of Uraku-ryū, or the Uraku style. Its historical existence is also reflected in Omotesenke’s broader account of early Edo samurai tea, where Uraku style appears alongside Sansai, Enshū, Sōwa and Sekishū styles.
What is Jo-an?
Jo-an (如庵) is the tea room most closely associated with Uraku.
Omotesenke states that he built it in 1618 at Shōden-in within the Kennin-ji temple grounds in Kyoto.
Where is Jo-an today?
Today it stands at Urakuen in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture.
The official Urakuen site explains that Jo-an was moved there in the twentieth century and is now one of only three surviving tea rooms designated National Treasures.
What is unusual about Jo-an?
The official Urakuen description highlights several distinctive architectural devices, including the Uraku-mado window, angled wall treatment and the arrangement around the central post.
Jo-an is therefore useful evidence for Uraku’s taste in physical form, not merely a later textual reputation.
Was Jo-an built as a rustic copy of Rikyū’s Taian?
No.
Although both belong to the history of small tea-room architecture, Jo-an is not simply a replica of Rikyū’s rooms. Its proportions, window treatment and internal organization express a distinct Uraku design language.
How does Uraku fit between Rikyū and early Edo tea?
He is a bridge figure.
He was trained in the Rikyū world but lived until 1621, well into the Tokugawa period. His life therefore spans the shift from Momoyama political tea to the early Edo multiplication of named warrior styles.
How does he compare with Oribe?
Both were major warrior disciples of Rikyū, but their later reputations differ.
Oribe is strongly associated with distorted ceramics and visual experimentation. Uraku is especially associated with a surviving tea style and the architectural masterpiece Jo-an.
How does he compare with Enshū?
Kobori Enshū belongs to the next generation and became associated with kirei-sabi, architecture and gardens.
Uraku’s importance is earlier: he carries Rikyū-trained warrior tea across the political break from the sixteenth into the seventeenth century.
Why is Uraku important to the corpus?
He connects:
- Oda Nobunaga’s political world;
- Rikyū’s warrior disciple network;
- the alternate membership of the Rikyū Shichitetsu;
- early Edo daimyo tea;
- tea-room architecture through Jo-an;
- the development of named samurai tea styles.
Oda Uraku in one sentence
Oda Uraku was Nobunaga’s younger brother, a Rikyū-trained warrior tea master and founder of Uraku-ryū whose surviving Jo-an tea room makes his early Edo tea aesthetic unusually tangible today.
Sources and further reading
- Omotesenke — Oda Uraku
- Omotesenke — Rikyū Shichitetsu and alternate membership
- Urakuen official site — Oda Uraku and Jo-an
- Urakuen official site — National Treasure tea room Jo-an
Header image: early Edo portrait of Oda Nagamasu (Urakusai), unknown artist, Shōden Eigen-in collection; public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
