His birthplace is uncertain (accounts differ); he later went to Sakai and became a merchant.
Around this time he studied tea with the Sakai master Takeno Jōō, married his daughter and inherited his famed utensils.
Around this time he ran warehouses in the port of Sakai and grew rich, also trading in guns and gunpowder.
When Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto, Sōkyū promptly presented famous tea utensils. When Nobunaga demanded heavy war funds from Sakai, he urged its people to comply.
Nobunaga made him his agent in Sakai, and he was involved in running the Ikuno silver mine in Tajima. He also helped with gun production, backing Nobunaga's power economically.
Around this time he served with Sen no Rikyū and Tsuda Sōgyū as Nobunaga's tea masters; tea gatherings were also political occasions.
At the great tea gathering Toyotomi Hideyoshi held at Kitano Tenmangū in Kyoto, he served tea alongside Rikyū and Sōgyū.
He died. Called with Rikyū and Sōgyū one of the "three great tea masters", he had flourished through the Sengoku age as merchant and man of tea.
Oda NobunagaToyotomi HideyoshiSen no Rikyū
Ōuchi YoshitakaMatsunaga HisahideHōjō UjiyasuImagawa YoshimotoTakeda ShingenSue Harukata (Takafusa)Sen no RikyūShibata Katsuie
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.