Tea Room Gardens Cha Niwa

TEA GARDENS. The Cha-niwa, or gardens attached to Tea Rooms, next require notice. To understand the meaning of the designs and arrangements followed in such enclosures, some knowledge of the formulﾵ of the Tea Ceremonial is necessary. The practice of this cult is said to have developed largely under the patronage of the generalissimo, Yoshimasa, who constructed at his villa on Higashiyama a small Tea Room in which he commenced the study of the ceremonial, under the tutelage of a Nara priest, called Shuko. Many names stand out prominently from amongst the host of Tea Professors following Shuko (see pages 18-19). Each noted master in turn introduced changes and modifications in the sizes and disposition of Tea Rooms, and the distribution of subsidiary buildings, gardens, and approaches. A volume might fail to explain adequately all the intricacies of the diminutive structures required for the esoteric practices of the Cha-no-yu. Supreme importance is bestowed upon the most trivial details, extending to such minutiﾵ as the fractional depth and thickness of a window bar, or the exact number and spacing of the nail-heads in a doorway. An indication only of the principal uses and requirements, must suffice to explain the customary arrangements of the gardens adjoining the rooms. (Figure 46 shows a little Tea Garden from Sakai)