Rinkaku

In 1591 the Aizu district was under the command of Ujisato Gamo, one of Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi's trusted lieutenants. Gamo was a cultured man who appreciated the tea ceremony. When he heard that Senno Rikyu, a master of the tea ceremony, had angered the Shogun and was forced to commit suicide by hara-kiri, he took pity on his son, Shoan. Gamo hid him from the Shogun in Aizu-Wakamatsu where the son of the master of the tea ceremony secretly continued to practise his father's style of tea ceremony.

After the death of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Shoan was taken back to Kyoto by the new shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa and Ujisato Gamo because they wanted the Senno Rikyu style of tea ceremony to be continued. Shoan's three grandchildren went on to start the three variations of the Senno Rikyu style of tea ceremony which became the bases of the present tea ceremony.

The tea house which stands in the grounds of Tsurugajo Castle was built by Shoan. In one alcove you can see a red pine beam said to have been planned by Shoan himself.

The structure has a thatched roof of an intricate design which is rare in northern Japan.

After the Boshin Civil War when the castle was demolished, the castle tea server, Zenbei Morikawa, could not bear the thought of the destruction of the tea house so he had it dismantled and reassembled in the grounds of his own home. There it remained in the care of the Morikawa family for 120 years until 1990 when it was again dismantled and moved back to its original site in the southeast of the castle grounds.