Chashitsu – Teahouse
Papers – Washi, Fabriano, Optix, card
Frame size 700 x 500mm
What is it?
A Chashitsu is a space for tea ceremonies to be held, or a teahouse. It can be a room in a building or a freestanding structure. Freestanding chashitsu are found in gardens of private homes, temples, museums or parks.
History
In the Kamakura Period (1192 – 1333) Zen Buddhist monks drank tea to stay awake during long hours of meditation. Tea houses first appeared in the
Sengoku period (mid-15th century to early 17th century). The term chashitsu came into use after the start of the
Edo period around 1640.
Tea Ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, involves the ceremonial preparation and presentation of
matcha, powdered green
tea.
Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the Way of Tea. It is counted as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with
kōdō for incense appreciation, and
kadō for flower arrangement.
The guests and host sit
seiza-style (kneeling) on the floor. All materials used are intentionally simple and rustic.
There are different schools of tea ceremony, and rituals differ accordingly, for instance the “chabana” is a tea flowers ceremony involving flower arrangement.
Architecture
Simplicity and plainness are the central tenets of the tea house. The architectural style is referred to as “Sukiya” style. Usually a chashitsu’s main room has a floor size of 4.5 tatami mats. However, some are smaller. There is always a second room or mizuya where the host prepares the sweets and equipment.
Chashitsu feature shoji windows and doors, tatami mats and a tokonoma alcove for a flower arrangement and scroll. Traditional chasitsu have an irori (a sunken hearth) on which to boil a hanging iron kettle.
The windows are small and covered with shoji screens as they are not intended to provide a view to the outside, which would detract from the participants' concentration.
Fun Facts
- In earlier times, various terms were used for spaces used for tea ceremony, such as place for poetically inclined aesthetic pursuits and "partitioned-off space"
- There is a stone water-basin near the tea house, for guests rinse their hands and mouths before entering through a small, square door called nijiriguchi, or "crawling-in entrance", which symbolically separates the small, simple, quiet inside from the crowded, overwhelming outside world.
- In Japan room sizes are measured in terms of how many tatami mats they accommodate.
