Sen no Rikyu — Ichigo Ichie, a Universe in Two Tatami

Sen no Rikyu perfected the tea ceremony — and to my eyes he was history's greatest experience designer. His tea rooms were tiny: two tatami mats, with an entrance made deliberately smaller still. Through the nijiriguchi, even samurai had to remove their swords and bow to enter; high or low, all became simply human upon crossing it.

He designed human relations through the design of space. And the ceremony's heart, ichigo-ichie: this meeting comes once in a lifetime, so host and guest exhaust their sincerity — today's gathering never returns, so the water's temperature, a single flower, the placement of each utensil serve this one occasion.

The morning glory story survives: hearing Rikyu's garden was spectacular, Hideyoshi visited to find every flower cut — and inside the tea room, one single bloom. One flower outshining a hundred: the aesthetics of subtraction. Customer experience, hospitality, minimalism — Rikyu completed much of what modern business chases, 450 years ago.

The universe dwells in details.

What do you work for?