"Schools of Japanese tea" refers to the various lines or "streams" of Japanese tea ceremony. The word "schools" here is an English rendering of the Japanese term 'ryūha' (流派).
 There are three historical households (家) dedicated to developing and teaching the style of tea ceremony developed by Sen no Rikyū, the 16th century tea master from whom they are directly descended. They are known collectively as the san-Senke (三千家, "three Sen houses/families"), and consist of the Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushakōjisenke schools of tea.
 Another line, which was located in Sakai and therefore called the Sakaisenke (堺千家), was also descended from the original Senke (Sen house). Rikyū's natural son, Sen no Dōan, took over as head of the Sakaisenke after his father's death, but the Sakaisenke soon disappeared as Dōan had no offspring or successor. The school named Edosenke (江戸千家, "Edo Sen house/family") is not descended by blood from the Sen family; its founder, Kawakami Fuhaku (1716–1807), became a tea master under the 7th generation head of the Omotesenke line, and eventually set up a tea house in Edo (Tokyo), where he devoted himself to developing the Omotesenke style of tea ceremony in Edo.
 The san-Senke arose from the fact that three of the four sons of Genpaku Sōtan (Sen no Rikyū's grandson) inherited or built a tea house, and assumed the duty of passing forward the tea ideals and tea methodology of their great-grandfather, Sen no Rikyū. Kōshin Sōsa inherited Fushin-an (不審菴) and became the head (iemoto) of the Omotesenke line; Sensō Sōshitsu inherited Konnichi-an (今日庵) and became iemoto of the Urasenke line; and Ichiō Sōshu built Kankyū-an (官休庵) and became iemoto of the Mushakōjisenke line. The names of these three family lines came about from the locations of their estates, as symbolized by their tea houses: the family in the front (omote), the family in the rear (ura), and the family on Mushakōji Street.
 The style of tea ceremony considered to have been perfected by Sen no Rikyū and furthered by Sen Sōtan is known as wabi-cha. The san-Senke have historically championed this manner of tea.
 Schools that developed as branches or sub-schools of the san-Senke, or separately from them, are typically entitled with the suffix "~ryū" (from ryūha), which may be translated as "school" or "style."
 As opposed to the wabi-cha manner of tea ceremony, another style of tea ceremony, called buke-cha (武家茶, "warrior household tea") (also referred to as daimyo-cha (大名茶)) exists, the name referring to the manner of tea ceremony practiced by members of the warrior class mainly during the Edo period. In many cases, the daimyo of a domain would decide upon a certain official style of tea ceremony, which would be the style practiced in his domain. Generally, tea ceremony teachers were given the responsibility for teaching this style, but there were some daimyo who themselves possessed deep knowledge of tea ceremony.
 Some of the main buke-cha styles are the Uraku, Sansai, Oribe, Enshū, Ueda Sōko, Sekishū, Chinshin, Fumai, Ogasawara (Ogasawara family), and Oie (Ando family). Among these, the Sekishū, whose founder served as tea ceremony instructor to the shōgun, developed a notably large number of branches, and spread widely into warrior society.