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Born in Sakai as the son of a fish wholesaler named Tanaka Yohei, Rikyu took an interest in tea from childhood. He studied under Kitamuki Dochin and Takeno Joo, refining the aesthetics of wabi-cha to their ultimate expression. Around 1568 he entered the service of Oda Nobunaga, and later became tea master to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, enjoying enormous trust. He produced Hideyoshi's grand tea events and in 1585 performed a tea ceremony before Emperor Ogimachi at a gathering held within the Imperial Palace. He cultivated brilliant disciples known as the Seven Sages of Rikyu and spread the tea ceremony across warrior, aristocratic, and merchant classes alike. His rustic teahouse Taian is a crystallization of his aesthetics and survives today as the oldest extant teahouse in Japan, designated a National Treasure. In 1591 his relationship with Hideyoshi suddenly soured, partly because a wooden statue of Rikyu had been placed above the gate of Daitokuji, deemed an act of insolence. Ordered by Hideyoshi to commit seppuku, he died by his own hand at age 70. His death cast a long shadow not only over the tea world but over the entire history of Japanese culture, and his spiritual influence on later tea masters has been immeasurable.

He embodied the aesthetic of wabi and sabi — stripping away all excess — and refused to bend his artistic convictions even before the most powerful men of his age. Diametrically opposed to Hideyoshi's taste for gilded extravagance, Rikyu found the breadth of the universe in humble vessels and a tiny rustic teahouse. Through the tea ceremony he preached the spirit of ichi-go ichi-e, the philosophy of treasuring each unrepeatable encounter, a teaching that resonates to this day.

He became the founding ancestor of the three Sen schools of tea — Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushakojisenke — and his aesthetics permeated all facets of Japanese culture, from ceramics and architecture to gardens, cuisine, and flower arranging. The concept of wabi has been recognized internationally as Zen aesthetics and continues to influence modern design as a forerunner of minimalism.