Chashitsu

In Japanese tradition, rooms where tea ceremonies are performed are known as chashitsu (茶室, literally "tea room"). There are two types of chashitsu: free-standing structures often containing several rooms (known as tea houses in English), and rooms located within dwellings or other buildings and set aside for tea ceremony (known in English as tea rooms).

Tea houses are usually small, simple wooden buildings. They are traditionally located in remote, quiet areas, but today are more likely to be found in the gardens or grounds of larger houses, or in public or private parks.

Tea rooms are also usually small, and are found inside tea houses as well as in private homes, temples or shrines, schools, and other institutions. In Japanese homes, any room with a tatami floor may be used as a tea room; but the same room may also be used for other purposes.

Contents 1 Tea houses 2 History of tea houses 3 Layout and amenities 4 Tea rooms 5 Layout 6 Typical names for chashitsu 7 Famous chashitsu 8 References 9 See also

Tea houses

Tea houses are purpose-built structures where Japanese tea ceremonies are performed. The smallest tea house has two rooms: a tea room and a mizuya, where the host prepares the sweets and equipment, and may have a total floor area of only two or three mats.

Very large tea houses, such as those that can be found in some parks in Japan or those maintained by large tea schools, such as Urasenke, 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. Such tea houses can accommodate dozens of guests and several simultaneous tea ceremonies, and may have a total floor area exceeding sixty mats.

Whatever the size of the tea house, however, it will be built from simple, rustic materials and be scrupulously maintained and kept spotlessly clean.

History of tea houses

The design of tea houses is heavily influenced by Zen philosophy. Tea houses were first introduced in the Sengoku period, 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 Buddhism.

Tea houses were built mostly by Zen monks or by daimyo, samurai, and merchants who practiced the tea ceremony. They sought simplicity and tranquility - central tenets of Zen philosophy.

Layout and amenities

A typical tea house is surrounded by a small garden. In the garden there will be a waiting area for guests, as well as a roji (路地), or "dewy path" leading to the tea house. The tea house itself is usually built of wood and bamboo, and the only entrance and exit is a small, square door which symbolically separates the small, simple, quiet inside from the crowded, overwhelming outside world. Tea houses usually consist of two rooms: one used for the preparation of food, snacks and tea supplies, and the other for the holding of the tea ceremony itself. The main room is typically extremely small, often 4 1/2 tatami mats, and the ceilings are low. There is no furniture, except for that which is required for the preparation of tea. There will usually be a charcoal pit (炉, ro) in the center of the room for boiling water for tea.

Guests and hosts sit seiza style on the floor. There is usually little decoration. There will be a tokonoma (scroll alcove) holding a scroll of calligraphy or brush painting, and perhaps a small, simple, flower arrangement called a cha-bana (茶花). All materials used are intentionally simple and rustic.

Tea rooms

All doors and windows are traditional Japanese shōji, made of thin strips of balsa wood covered in a translucent Japanese paper which allows light from outside to come into the room. The floor is built a few feet above the ground in order to keep the room dry. These features are still common not only in houses and inns in the traditional style but also in ordinary residences.

Layout

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.

Typical tea houses and tea rooms have a ro (hearth), tokonoma and two or three entrances. There are at least two entrances, one for guests and one for the host. The entrance for guests, called nijiri-guchi, connects the tea room and the outside. The other entrance connects the tea room and mizuya and is used by the host and any assistants. Some tea rooms have a third entrance, called kinin-guchi (lit. "entrance for the nobility"), which is only used by high-ranking people such as daimyo. The toko (lit. "floor") is an alcove where the host displays flowers or calligraphy, which may be admired during the course of the ceremony. To enable the appreciation of these objects, as well the tea utensils themselves, tea rooms often have windows. However traditional tea rooms seldom have a wide window, since the dimly-lit room helps the participants to concentrate on the ceremony itself. A hearth is set in the floor, never on the wall or in the alcove, and is used in all seasons.

The size of tea houses and tea rooms is traditionally determined by the number of tatami needed to cover the floor (the unit of counting is the jo, another word for tatami). The size of the toko is not relevant to the calculation. For tea rooms a special-sized tatami, called daime (台目), is often used. There is normally only one daime, rarely used two, and the size of a tea house is therefore calculated as the number of tatami and daime. For example, a tea house could be ni-jo (2 tatami), san-jo-daime (3 tatami and 1 daime) or yo-jo-han (4 and a half tatami). Tea houses and rooms are classified by size: those which are yo-jo-han or smaller are koma (lit. "small room") and those which are yo-jo-han or larger are hiroma (lit. "big room"). This means that yo-jo-han (4 1/2 tatami) rooms may be placed in either category.

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 "hut", "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)
• Tokyū-dō (東求堂, East-Seeking Hall)
• Shō-an (松庵, Pine Hut)
• Ichimoku-an (一木庵, One Tree Hut)
• Rokusō-an (六窓庵, Six Window Hut)
• Bōji-tei (忘路停, Forgotten Path Arbour)

Famous chashitsu

• Jo-an (如庵). Now located in Inuyama in Aichi, this tea house was built in Kyoto by Urukusai, the younger brother of Oda Nobunaga in 1618 and was moved to its present location in 1972. It was designated a national treasure in 1951.
• Konnichi-an (今日庵, Today Hut) a large tea house belonging to the Urasenke school in Kyoto.
• Zangetsu-tei (残月亭, Morning Moon Arbour). A tea house belonging to the Omotesenke school in Kyoto.

References

1. "Introduction to oriental civilizations: Sources of the Japanese Tradition." Columbia University Press: New York 1958
2. Verley, Paul. "Japanese Culture." 4th ed. Updated and Expanded. University of Hawaii Press. 2000
3. Murphey, Rhoads. "East Asian: a new History." 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers 2001

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tea house

• Japanese tea ceremony
• Japan
• Tea
• Tea culture
• Tea house
• Samurai
• Zen

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