Did the Japanese invade Korea for teabowls?

By the 16th century, the tea ceremony was already the rage in Japan and the Japanese were mad about tea-bowls imported from Korea. If you were a Japanese in those days, you could spend between 10,000 and 50,000 bags of rice to buy your own fiefdom or splurge on the latest Korean tea-bowls.

Small wonder that the Japanese thought it made more economic sense to Iaunch a war against its neighbour across the waters. Not only could they seize as many Korean teacups as they pleased, but they could also assure themselves of an endless supply by kidnapping Korea’s finest potters and taking them back to Japan.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the Japanese warlord who hatched the plan to invade Korea and it just so happened that he was the pupil of the great tea master, Sen No Rikyu. Unfortunately Sen No Rikyu had a falling-out with the warlord and committed hara-kiri before the Japanese invasion of Korea. Wonder what the tea master would’ve said if he had known of his student’s plans.

Source of pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bric_uk/407135262/