Following its importation from China in the 7th century, tea was initially drunk as a form of medicine and imbibed in monasteries as a means of keeping awake during meditation. However, after being endorsed by Zen Buddhists during the early Kamakura period, tea-drinking was increasingly adopted by the ruling classes, who organised elaborate tea gatherings at which guests were invited to guess the origins of the tea being served.

Eventually, through the influence of Zen Buddhist masters of the 14th and 15th centuries, the procedures for the serving of tea in front of guests were developed into the Japanese tea ceremony (chado, sado, or chanoyu - ‘the way of tea’), a simple ritual with subtle, deep layers of meaning rooted in both Zen Buddhism and Japanese ways of thinking.

By this time, tea gatherings had begun to move out of residential buildings into separate tea houses (chashitsu), the simple design of which allowed participants to set aside all distractions and engage in deep reflection. Still used today, the soan (grass hut) design featured a small, rustic structure of bamboo, wood and thatch built in a garden setting. Its low door (nijiriguchi) required all guests, regardless of their status, to crawl inside without their weapons, and participate as social equals.

The interior design included a recessed alcove (tokonoma), smaller than that of shoin-zukuri, with only a slightly raised platform or even none at all. There was a charcoal pit in the centre of the room for boiling water, an iron kettle, a plain lacquered container for the tea, a tea scoop, a bamboo whisk and a common rice bowl for drinking the tea. The floor was covered by tatami mats and decoration was kept to the bare minimum of a hanging scroll or a vase of flowers. There was often a second room for the preparation of food and storage of tea.

Seven of Rikyu’s disciples, mainly Hideyoshi’s samurai retainers, developed their own larger and less rustic versions of this basic tea house design in order to reflect their aristocratic origins, and by the start of the Edo period there was a tendency for both styles to adopt specific features from each other.

The simple style of the chashitsu also influenced the development of the sukiya-zukuri style of residential architecture, a less formal version of the shoin style which had preceded it.

After Rikyu's death his grandson and later three great-grandsons carried on the Rikyu style of tea, giving rise to today’s three main schools of Japanese tea art – Omotesenke, Urasenke and Mushanokojisenke. Under their influence and that of certain other major schools, the tea ceremony is now taught around the world.

Japan's most famous tea ceremony house is the Jo-an tea ceremony house, a designated national treasure built in 1618 by Oda Uraku, younger brother of Oda Nobunaga and disciple of Sen no Rikyu. During the Meiji Period (1868-1912) this teahouse was moved from Kyoto to Inuyama, where it now stands in the Uraku-en garden, along with Uraku's former study room and a number of other tea ceremony houses.