David P. Rondina and Professor Lee A. Butler, History

The results of this research grant have been interesting and difficult to obtain. To find all of the information that was necessary I not only looked in published books and articles but I also went to Japan to examine first hand some of the tea houses and residences from the sixteenth century. At the same time I observed how current houses are built. I found that there were two main areas in which the tea huts, or chasitsu, affected the building practices of residences. These areas of influence are found in the decorative and philosophical ideas of the people.

These ideas were implemented primarily in the residences and retreats of the rich. The decorations tried to give the impression of nature, of poverty, or of the philosophical tenets the tea masters had. Some of these decorations are tree trunks and branches stripped of their bark, decorated paper on the walls and sliding panels, wood panels and transoms, nail covers in various organic shapes, and more windows than necessary.

There were three philosophical beliefs that had the most impact. These beliefs were wabi, sabi, and suki. Wabi, or tranquil simplicity, can be found in the natural textures and colors of an object. Sabi, or patina of age, is a form of beauty that comes from the passage of time and is at its best when an object is almost ready to collapse. Suki, or subtle elegance, can be found in strange and unique objects such as twisted tree trunks or roots.

These ideas and beliefs were introduced during a hundred year period starting in the mid-sixteenth century. The beginning of the change occurred when the tea masters began to imitate the homes and farmhouses of the poorer class. The interior of this tea room was simple and unadorned. Windows, for example, were areas in the clay walls were stucco had not been applied. The masters later began to use unshaped tree trunks as support beams as a way of suggesting humbleness, wabi, and poverty. Fewer windows and stained posts darkened the interior. Some tea masters separated the tea room from the other buildings, making it a tea hut. Gardens were then created to surround these new huts.

A drastic change was made when disciples of the masters converted the interiors of the tea rooms and huts into sun-lit areas. Windows were used to a greater extent and wood was left unstained or not stained at all. The humble clay of the walls was found unworthy and wood became the standard. The interiors, now lit, had such adornment as carved and decorated panels, nail covers and metal pulls on the fusuma, or sliding doors. These covers and pulls would be designed in various forms such as Mt. Fuji, eggplants, or flowers. The masters expressed suki through twisted roots and branches as supports or decoration and through unique tea pots.

Some examples of how the mentioned tea hut features became widely used can be found in the Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, Manshu-in, Koto-in, Himeji castle, Kurashiki, and in two houses I saw in Kyoto. In all of these buildings clay walls were practically nonexistent; wood was the most common building material. The Shugaku-in Imperial Villa was built in the 1650s. Not only did I see, in various buildings of the complex, tree branch arches but also nail covers designed to look like the clouds. Manshu-in, although built in the eighth century, holds some tea room features that were added later. Here, carved transoms and decorated panels dating from the Edo period (1615-1867), nail covers in the form of Mt. Fuji and eggplants, and beams made from tree branches and trunks are seen.

Koto-in was built in the early 1600s and in various parts of the complex one finds strangely shaped beams as well as carved transoms and decorated fusuma. Himeji castle was completed in 1618. When I visited the castle I walked through a corridor in the west bailey which had been recently rebuilt. This corridor shines with the natural color of the wood that was used. In the town of Kurashiki I was able to visit an Edo period historic district. I saw a house there that has an exterior cabinet that exhibits sabi. Time had weathered the boards so that the grain has produced interesting and beautiful designs. Likewise, in Takayama, there is a house with a fence that is worm eaten and full of beautiful designs. I saw suki in a window of a recently built house near the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. This window has a tree trunk as a frame. Another house I visited was the house of Mr. Omura, a wood worker. The traditional room of his modern house has decorated sliding panels and, in its simplicity, exhibits wabi. While there he also showed me some metal door pulls that were over 50 years old. These pulls had been inlayed with gold and lacquered.

To compare the chasitsu to the residences of today is somewhat difficult to do because of the large difference between the two. Most of the houses built today seem to concentrate on having more of a Western style atmosphere rather than a traditional Japanese one. However, it is still possible to find those rare gems that exhibit wabi or sabi or suki in the homes of those who remember their traditions. These finds make such an impression that they remain in the memory for long after the viewer has left. The research I was able to do allowed me to see that even though the buildings themselves are very different, the principles that went into the design are the same as those that produced the great chasitsu of the tea masters.

Works Consulted

• Engel, Heinrich. The Japanese House: a Tradition for Contemporary Architecture. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle: Publishers, 1964.
• Teiji, Itoh. The Classic Tradition in Japanese Architecture: Modern Versions of the Sukiya Style. trans. Richard L. Gage. New York: Weatherhill, Inc., 1992.
• Teiji, Itoh. The Essence of Japanese Beauty. Trans. Lynne E. Riggs. Ed. Sesoko Tsune. Hiroshima: Mazda Motor Corporation, 1993.