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Tea rooms,
often found in tea gardens are much more than just rooms used for sipping
tea; they are designed around the tea ceremony and hold great significance
in their own right.
Tea rooms usually have shingled roofs and clay walls.
The architectural concept is "simplicity". Often the straw
used to strengthen the walls is visible long after the tea house has
been completed. The use of wood in tea houses is important, rather than
the use of space and light. Many kinds of wood are used, including Japanese
cedar, red pine, white cedar, chestnut, and bamboo. The wood is finished
in a variety of natural dyes. Sometimes the clay walls were covered
with soot to enhance the wood. Simple decorations adorn the walls. Present day tea
houses are constructed in the architectural style of Sukiya, which includes adding convex,
or bulging, curves to roofs (in contrast to the popular concave curves previously used).
Sukiya also emphasizes simplicity in construction, in direct contrast
to the highly decorative style previously popular. This philosophy,
which stems from the tea ceremony itself, has created some of the most
beautiful structures in Japan, encouraging a style of architecture based
on natural materials and simplicity.
Tea room and Sukiya architecture give expression
to a gentle human individuality by using solely natural materials. This
style of architecture also follows the strict ethics of the tea spirit
and the tea ceremony and conceals within it a sophisticated and pure
artistic form.
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