Keywords
Art History
General Terms
Lit. "famous thing." Term applied to items of tea ceremony *chanoyu 茶湯 equipment which are of particular merit in their historical and aesthetic quality. There are three divisions within the nomenclature.
1 Ōmeibutsu 大名物 (Great famous things): those articles in use before the time of the tea master Sen no Rikyū 千利休 (1522-92).
2 Meibutsu: Those articles used and approved in Rikyū's time.
3 Chūkō meibutsu 中興名物 (Rediscovered famous things): These were approved by the tea master Kobori Enshū 小堀遠州 (1579-1647).