Imai Sokun

Imai Sōkun was a prominent arms trader and master of the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). Born as a son of weapon trader and tea master Imai Sōkyū, he inherited his father’s business. He also followed his father as an advisor and tea master to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a powerful feudal lord who completed the 16th-century unification of Japan. Later he entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who named him a “hatamoto” (samurai) and granted him an estate worth 1,300 koku.