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VOL.1
Assembled Tea Room "Shousoh-An"

2022 / 1 / 23

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitsu | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The Monozukuri Takumi no Gijutsu Festival 2021 was held on December 18 and 19.

Although only online and without audience, we assembled a "Takumiso-an" with a karesansui garden and had a lively discussion about tea ceremony rooms with Tokyo's leading artisans.

Takumiso-an" was presented at the 1st Monozukuri Takumi no Gijutsu Festival 2016 to showcase Japanese traditional techniques to the world through tea ceremony rooms. It is an authentic tea room with an 8-mat hall + a mizuya (water closet) + a 2-mat daisy booth.

Assembly of the tea house takes 4 hours and 6 hours for landscaping, making it complete in about 10 hours.
Takumiso-an" is built in the image of the ocean with ocean blue tiles so that it can be moved across the sea anywhere in the world.
 

Craftsmanship

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitsu | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The main actor in the construction of a tea house is, of course, the carpenter. In the old days, a carpenter was not simply a woodworker, but was also called munebei, the head of a group of craftsmen. The "Takumiso-an" was completed in a short period of time, one month for design and two months for construction, thanks to the skills of the master carpenter. The pillars are made of cedar bark, rusted and polished logs, chestnut hexagonal naguri pillars, and kobushi medium-sized pillars. The pillars are erected on a foundation of chestnut naguri, and the shikii (threshold), kamoi (overhang), and kairi-buchi (veranda) are connected one after the other. To speed up the assembly process, the flooring is laid out in a box-like structure and the tatami mats are laid on the floor. The ceiling is made of bamboo arranged in a light checkered pattern, and openwork carvings of 47 prefectures are placed on the balustrade and transoms to express a tea ceremony room in which artisans from all over Japan have gathered. No nails or screws are used, only mortise and tenon. Incidentally, it can be dismantled and moved in two hours.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The walls of the hall and the water closet are plastered with polychrome polychrome on each panel, with grooves dug into the pillars as walls. The base of the panels was prepared in advance so that the plastering could be done slowly and carefully regardless of the carpentry process. The base coat is also very important for plastering, and the wall is resistant to cracking by applying several coats of primer. Jurakucho is the clay used by Hideyoshi when he built the Jurakudai near Nishijin, Kyoto. Real Jurakucho clay is very precious and is rarely found in the market nowadays.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The walls of the small room are Kumiko openwork walls, with the hemp leaf (female) at the center and the alcove wall being a cherry blossom turtle shell (male).
The scenery seen through the space enclosed by the Kumiko wall, which is made of 20,000 pieces of wood pieces, is serene and tranquil. The cleats of the shoji screens are also made of beveled cedar with a delicate and chic hand. Although ready-made fittings are the norm in today's housing, fittings are the most important element of a space and are the work of a master craftsman.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The fusuma are covered with Torinoko and Edo karakami, but what is even more important is the base of the fusuma. The washi is covered with several layers of washi and a technique such as bag-hanging is used to make it easy to replace the front sliding door paper, and the washi is cut not with a cutter but by tearing it, leaving the fibers intact to avoid uneven joints. The craftsmanship is hidden in many places, even in places that cannot be seen.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

For the first time, we selected a butterfly and a Hyakunin Isshu pattern from old Ise-katagami, decided on the color scheme, and created an Edo komon to be installed around the tokonoma (alcove) as a sutra wall. The situation of Ise-katagami is so severe that new designs and patterns cannot be created at present because the carvers are getting old. We hope that new possibilities will emerge through the use of fusuma (sliding door) walls and fittings made of fabrics.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu |Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

These rimless sliding doors are mainly used in tea ceremony rooms for the entrance to the tea ceremony and for serving tea, and are made of Japanese paper on both sides with a wooden frame that can be seen through. The pulls are also made in different styles and preferences, such as "jinotoshi" or "jinuke" (dust-dropping).

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu | Exterior | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The floor is made of ocean-purple tiles, which are divided into more than 30 panels and combined to create the image of ripples in the ocean. The mosaic tile turtles swimming on the tortoise shell Kumiko wall in the small room also create a tea room floating on the sea.
Tiles are not usually used in a tea room, but we think that tiles with fluctuating patterns on the floor and walls are very suitable.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu | Garden | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

I have created the garden for "Shokuso-an" four times before, but this time I decided to create a karesansui (dry landscape garden), which is popular even in foreign countries. The island of the landscape stone connected to the Kougetsu-dai was floated and made waves with cobble gravel, contrasting with the moss garden up to the stone wash.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu | Garden | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

In the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when the Zen sect of Buddhism was introduced to Japan, Zen temples began to build stone gardens in earnest, and by the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the karesansui style was completed, using stones and sand to represent water. Karesansui is associated with Zen and has been favored as a garden for meditation and has been created in large numbers. Famous examples are the stone gardens at Ginkakuji Temple and Ryoanji Temple.
Karesansui is called "Zen Garden" in English and is very popular overseas.

Japanese Tea Room | Chashitsu | Assembled Chashitstu | Garden | Tsubaki Architectural Design Institute

The garden of the tea ceremony room is called "Roji" (open space). From the sitting area, visitors walk along stepping stones and steps, pass through the middle gate, wash their hands and mouths with washbowls, and enter the tea ceremony room. The stepping stones can be placed in various ways, such as double, triple, or staggered, and the walk is a pathway that calms the mind and raises expectations for the tea ceremony room.

The flat plaque of "Shokusoan" was named by Grand Master Sen Genshitsu, the 15th Iemoto of the Urasenke School of Tea. It is truly a hermitage created by a master.
It is a hermitage created by artisans. The "Takumiso-an" tea house, an assembly of various artisans, serves to transmit the skills of artisans to the world, and is filled with hints for the creation of new tea house spaces in the future.

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Tsubaki & Associates

Kuniji Tsubaki

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