Chashitsu
Encyclopedia
In Japan
ese tradition, architectural spaces designed to be used for tea ceremony
(chanoyu) gatherings are known as chashitsu (茶室, literally "tea rooms").
The architectural style that developed for chashitsu is referred to as the sukiya style (sukiya-zukuri
), and the term sukiya (数奇屋) may be used as a synonym for chashitsu. Related Japanese terms are chaseki (茶席), broadly meaning "place for tea," and implying any sort of space where people are seated to participate in tea ceremony, and chabana, "tea flowers", the style of flower arrangement associated with the tea ceremony.
Typical features of chashitsu are shōji
windows and sliding doors made of wooden lattice covered in a translucent Japanese paper
; tatami
mat floors; a tokonoma
alcove; and simple, subdued colours and style. The ideal floor size of a chashitsu is 4.5 tatami mats.
Tea houses are usually small, simple wooden buildings. They are located in the gardens or grounds of private homes. Other common sites are the grounds of temples, museums, and parks. The smallest tea house will have two rooms: the main room where the host and guests gather and tea is served, and a mizuya
, where the host prepares the sweets and equipment. The entire structure may have a total floor area of only three tatami mats.
Very large tea houses may have several tea rooms of different sizes; a large, well-equipped mizuya resembling a modern kitchen; a large waiting room for guests; a welcoming area where guests are greeted and can remove and store their shoes; separate toilets for men and women; a changing room; a storage room; and possibly several anterooms as well as a garden with a roji path, an outdoor waiting area for guests and one or more privies
.
Tea rooms are purpose-built spaces for holding tea gatherings. They may be located within larger tea houses, or within private homes or other structures not intended for tea ceremony. A tea room may have a floor area as small as 1.75 tatami mats (one full tatami mat for the guests plus a tatami mat called a daime (台目), approximately 3/4 the length of a full tatami mat, for the portable brazier (furo) or sunken hearth (ro) to be situated and the host to sit and prepare the tea); or as large as 10 tatami mats or more; 4.5 mats is generally considered the ideal in modern tea rooms. A tea room will usually contain a tokonoma and a sunken hearth for preparing tea in the winter.
(ca. 1600). In earlier times, various terms were used for spaces used for tea ceremony, such as chanoyu zashiki (茶湯座敷; "sitting room for chanoyu"), sukiya (place for poetically-inclined aesthetic pursuits [fūryū, 風流]) such as chanoyu), and kakoi (囲; lit., "partitioned-off space").
According to Japanese historian Moriya Takeshi in his article "The Mountain Dwelling Within the City," the ideal of wabi-style tea ceremony
(wabi-cha) had its roots in the urban society of the Muromachi period
(1336 to 1573), and took form in the tea houses that townspeople built at their residences and which affected the appearance of thatched huts in mountain villages. Before this, tea ceremony was generally enjoyed in rooms built in the shoin-zukuri architectural style, a style frequently employed in tea rooms built today.
Tea houses first appeared in the Sengoku period
(mid-15th century to early 17th century), a time in which the central government had almost no practical power, the country was in chaos, and wars and uprisings were commonplace. Seeking to reclaim Japan, samurai
were busy acquiring and defending territories, promoting trade and overseeing the output of farms, mills and mines as de-facto rulers, and many of the poor were eager to seek the salvation of the afterlife as taught by Zen Buddhism. Tea houses were built mostly by Zen monks or by daimyo
, samurai
, and merchants who practiced tea ceremony. They sought simplicity and tranquility - central tenets of Zen philosophy. The acknowledgment of simplicity and plainness, which is a central motivation of the tea house, continued to remain as a distinct Japanese tradition in the later periods.
having a path leading to the tea room. This garden is called roji (露地), or "dewy ground." Along the path is a waiting bench for guests and a privy. There is a stone water-basin near the tea house, where the guests rinse their hands and mouths before entering the tea room through a small, square door called nijiriguchi, or "crawling-in entrance," which requires bending low to pass through and symbolically separates the small, simple, quiet inside from the crowded, overwhelming outside world. The nijiriguchi leads directly into the tea room.
The tea room has a low ceiling and no furniture: the guests and host sit seiza
-style on the floor. All materials used are intentionally simple and rustic. Besides the guests' entrance, there may be several more entrances; at minimum there is an entrance for the host known as the sadōguchi, which allows access to the mizuya. Windows are generally small and covered with shōji
, which allows natural light to filter in. The windows are not intended to provide a view to the outside, which would detract from the participants' concentration. There is a sunken hearth (炉, ro) located in the tatami adjacent to the host's tatami, for use in the cold months; this hearth is covered with a plain tatami and is not visible in the warm months, when a portable brazier (風炉, furo) is used instead.
There will be a tokonoma
(scroll alcove) holding a scroll of calligraphy or brush painting, and perhaps a small, simple, flower arrangement called a chabana (茶花), but no other decoration.
Chashitsu are broadly classified according to whether they have a floor area larger or smaller than 4.5 tatami, a differentiation which affects the style of ceremony that can be conducted, the specific type of equipment and decoration that can be used, the placement of various architectural features and the hearth, and the number of guests that can be accommodated. Chashitsu which are larger than 4.5 mats are called hiroma (literally, "big room"), while those that are smaller are called koma (literally, "small room"). Hiroma often are shoin
style rooms, and for the most part are not limited to use for chanoyu.
Other factors that affect the tea room are architectural constraints such as the location of windows, entrances, the sunken hearth and the tokonoma, particularly when the tea room is not located within a purpose-built structure. Not all tea rooms can be made to conform to the ideal seen in the image.
", "hall," or "arbour," and reflect the spirit of rustic simplicity of the tea ceremony and the teachings of Zen Buddhism. Characteristic names include:
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese tradition, architectural spaces designed to be used for tea ceremony
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called . The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called...
(chanoyu) gatherings are known as chashitsu (茶室, literally "tea rooms").
The architectural style that developed for chashitsu is referred to as the sukiya style (sukiya-zukuri
Sukiya-zukuri
is one type of Japanese residential architectural style. Suki means refined, well cultivated taste and delight in elegant pursuits and refers to enjoyment of the exquisitely performed tea ceremony....
), and the term sukiya (数奇屋) may be used as a synonym for chashitsu. Related Japanese terms are chaseki (茶席), broadly meaning "place for tea," and implying any sort of space where people are seated to participate in tea ceremony, and chabana, "tea flowers", the style of flower arrangement associated with the tea ceremony.
Typical features of chashitsu are shōji
Shoji
In traditional Japanese architecture, a shōji is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo...
windows and sliding doors made of wooden lattice covered in a translucent Japanese paper
Washi
is a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat...
; tatami
Tatami
A is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. Traditionally made of rice straw to form the core , with a covering of woven soft rush straw, tatami are made in standard sizes, with the length exactly twice the width...
mat floors; a tokonoma
Tokonoma
Tokonoma , also referred to simply as toko, is a Japanese term generally referring to a built-in recessed space in a Japanese style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed. In English, tokonoma is usually called alcove. The items usually displayed in a tokonoma are...
alcove; and simple, subdued colours and style. The ideal floor size of a chashitsu is 4.5 tatami mats.
Tea houses versus tea rooms
In Japanese, free-standing structures specifically designed for exclusive tea ceremony use, as well as individual rooms intended for tea ceremony, are both referred to as chashitsu. The term may be used to indicate the tea room itself where the guests are received, or that room and its attached facilities, even extending to the roji garden path leading to it. In English, a distinction is often made between free-standing structures for tea, referred to as tea houses, and rooms used for tea ceremony incorporated within other structures.Tea houses are usually small, simple wooden buildings. They are located in the gardens or grounds of private homes. Other common sites are the grounds of temples, museums, and parks. The smallest tea house will have two rooms: the main room where the host and guests gather and tea is served, and a mizuya
Mizuya
Mizuya is the term for the preparation area in a Japanese tea house or attached to any venue used for the Japanese tea ceremony. For instance, the area used for preparation during outdoor tea ceremonies is also called the mizuya...
, where the host prepares the sweets and equipment. The entire structure may have a total floor area of only three tatami mats.
Very large tea houses may have several tea rooms of different sizes; a large, well-equipped mizuya resembling a modern kitchen; a large waiting room for guests; a welcoming area where guests are greeted and can remove and store their shoes; separate toilets for men and women; a changing room; a storage room; and possibly several anterooms as well as a garden with a roji path, an outdoor waiting area for guests and one or more privies
Outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...
.
Tea rooms are purpose-built spaces for holding tea gatherings. They may be located within larger tea houses, or within private homes or other structures not intended for tea ceremony. A tea room may have a floor area as small as 1.75 tatami mats (one full tatami mat for the guests plus a tatami mat called a daime (台目), approximately 3/4 the length of a full tatami mat, for the portable brazier (furo) or sunken hearth (ro) to be situated and the host to sit and prepare the tea); or as large as 10 tatami mats or more; 4.5 mats is generally considered the ideal in modern tea rooms. A tea room will usually contain a tokonoma and a sunken hearth for preparing tea in the winter.
History of chashitsu
The term chashitsu came into use after the start of the Edo periodEdo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
(ca. 1600). In earlier times, various terms were used for spaces used for tea ceremony, such as chanoyu zashiki (茶湯座敷; "sitting room for chanoyu"), sukiya (place for poetically-inclined aesthetic pursuits [fūryū, 風流]) such as chanoyu), and kakoi (囲; lit., "partitioned-off space").
According to Japanese historian Moriya Takeshi in his article "The Mountain Dwelling Within the City," the ideal of wabi-style tea ceremony
Wabi-cha
Wabi-cha Wabi-cha Wabi-cha (わび茶、侘茶、侘び茶）, or wabi-tea, is a style of Japanese tea ceremony particularly associated with Sen Rikyū and Takeno Jōō before him. Wabi-cha emphasizes simplicity...
(wabi-cha) had its roots in the urban society of the Muromachi period
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
(1336 to 1573), and took form in the tea houses that townspeople built at their residences and which affected the appearance of thatched huts in mountain villages. Before this, tea ceremony was generally enjoyed in rooms built in the shoin-zukuri architectural style, a style frequently employed in tea rooms built today.
Tea houses first appeared in the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
(mid-15th century to early 17th century), a time in which the central government had almost no practical power, the country was in chaos, and wars and uprisings were commonplace. Seeking to reclaim Japan, samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
were busy acquiring and defending territories, promoting trade and overseeing the output of farms, mills and mines as de-facto rulers, and many of the poor were eager to seek the salvation of the afterlife as taught by Zen Buddhism. Tea houses were built mostly by Zen monks or by daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
, samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, and merchants who practiced tea ceremony. They sought simplicity and tranquility - central tenets of Zen philosophy. The acknowledgment of simplicity and plainness, which is a central motivation of the tea house, continued to remain as a distinct Japanese tradition in the later periods.
An ideal tea house
An ideal free-standing tea house is surrounded by a small gardenJapanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....
having a path leading to the tea room. This garden is called roji (露地), or "dewy ground." Along the path is a waiting bench for guests and a privy. There is a stone water-basin near the tea house, where the guests rinse their hands and mouths before entering the tea room through a small, square door called nijiriguchi, or "crawling-in entrance," which requires bending low to pass through and symbolically separates the small, simple, quiet inside from the crowded, overwhelming outside world. The nijiriguchi leads directly into the tea room.
The tea room has a low ceiling and no furniture: the guests and host sit seiza
Seiza
Seiza is the Japanese term for the traditional formal way of sitting in Japan.- Form :To sit seiza-style, one first kneels on the floor, folding one's legs underneath one's thighs, while resting the buttocks on the heels...
-style on the floor. All materials used are intentionally simple and rustic. Besides the guests' entrance, there may be several more entrances; at minimum there is an entrance for the host known as the sadōguchi, which allows access to the mizuya. Windows are generally small and covered with shōji
Shoji
In traditional Japanese architecture, a shōji is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo...
, which allows natural light to filter in. The windows are not intended to provide a view to the outside, which would detract from the participants' concentration. There is a sunken hearth (炉, ro) located in the tatami adjacent to the host's tatami, for use in the cold months; this hearth is covered with a plain tatami and is not visible in the warm months, when a portable brazier (風炉, furo) is used instead.
There will be a tokonoma
Tokonoma
Tokonoma , also referred to simply as toko, is a Japanese term generally referring to a built-in recessed space in a Japanese style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed. In English, tokonoma is usually called alcove. The items usually displayed in a tokonoma are...
(scroll alcove) holding a scroll of calligraphy or brush painting, and perhaps a small, simple, flower arrangement called a chabana (茶花), but no other decoration.
Tea room layouts
Shoin
' is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or study. From this room takes its name the shoin-zukuri style...
style rooms, and for the most part are not limited to use for chanoyu.
Other factors that affect the tea room are architectural constraints such as the location of windows, entrances, the sunken hearth and the tokonoma, particularly when the tea room is not located within a purpose-built structure. Not all tea rooms can be made to conform to the ideal seen in the image.
Typical names for chashitsu
It is usual for chashitsu to be given a name by their owners or benefactors. Names usually include the character for "hutHut (dwelling)
A hut is a small and crude shelter, usually used for dwelling. Its design favors local techniques and materials to allow for swift and inexpensive construction.-Modern use:...
", "hall," or "arbour," and reflect the spirit of rustic simplicity of the tea ceremony and the teachings of Zen Buddhism. Characteristic names include:
- Fushin-an (不審庵, Doubting Hut)
- Mugai-an (無外庵, Introvert Hut)
- Mokurai-an (黙雷庵, Silent Thunder Hut)
- Tōkyū-dō (東求堂, East-Seeking Hall) (note: the 東求堂 at Ginkakuji is pronounced Tōgudō, and is a private Buddhist hall, not a chashitsu)
- Shō-an (松庵, Pine Hut)
- Ichimoku-an (一木庵, One Tree Hut)
- Rokusō-an (六窓庵, Six Window Hut)
- Bōji-tei (忘路亭, Forgotten Path Arbour)
Famous chashitsu
- Jo-an (如庵). Now located in Inuyama in Aichi, this tea house was built in KyotoKyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
in 1618 by Urakusai, the younger brother of Oda NobunagaOda Nobunagawas the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...
, and was moved to its present location in 1972. It was designated a National TreasureNational treasures of JapanNational Treasures are the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs...
in 1951. - Konnichi-an (今日庵, Today Hut). The original tea room built by Sen SōtanSen Sotan, also known as Genpaku Sōtan 元伯宗旦, was the grandson of the famed figure in Japanese cultural history, Sen Rikyū. He is remembered as Rikyū's third-generation successor in Kyoto through whose efforts and by whose very being, as the blood-descendant of Rikyū, the ideals and style of Japanese tea...
at what later became known as the UrasenkeUrasenkeis the name of one of the main schools of Japanese tea ceremony. It is one of the san-Senke ; the other two are Omotesenke and Mushakōjisenke....
Konnichian estate. The floor space is composed of but one full tatami, a 3/4 size daime tatami, and a wooden board at the head of the daime tatami. There is no recessed tokonoma. - Tai-an (待庵). The only extant chashitsu designed by Sen Rikyū, representing his concept of wabi-cha. Located at Myōkian temple in Ōyamazaki, Kyoto. Designated a National Treasure.
- Zangetsu-tei (残月亭, Morning Moon Arbour). A tea house belonging to the OmotesenkeOmotesenkeis the name of one of the three houses or families that count their family founder as Sen Rikyū and are dedicated to carrying forward the Way of Tea that he developed. The other two are Urasenke and Mushakōjisenke. The three are together referred to as the san-Senke...
school in Kyoto.
See also
- Japanese tea ceremonyJapanese tea ceremonyThe Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called . The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called...
- JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
- Tea cultureTea cultureTea culture is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking, it includes aspects of: tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media...
- Tea houseTea houseA tea house or tearoom is a venue centered on drinking tea. Its function varies widely depending on the culture, and some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses or parlors that all qualify under the English language term "tea house" or "tea room."-Asia:In Central Asia this term...
- SamuraiSamuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
- ZenZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Further reading
- "Introduction to oriental civilizations: Sources of the Japanese Tradition." Columbia University Press: New York 1958
- Varley, Paul. "Japanese Culture." 4th ed. Updated and Expanded. University of Hawaii Press. 2000
- Murphey, Rhoads. "East Asian: a new History." 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers 2001
External links
- Comprehensive coverage with photos and diagrams
- Japanese web page containing nice photos of Rikyū's Tai-an tea room
- General explanation of tea room and sukiya architecture in Japanese culture
- The Herbert Offen Research Collection of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, an important research collection in regards to chashitsu.