Japanese Tea Rooms and Spatial Aesthetics

From the time of Chirikyu's time, the tea ceremony has not only dominated the entire history of tea culture, but through its penetration of Japan's finer cultural structures, it has had a notable impact on the Japanese moral and aesthetic sensitivities and standards of behavior, an impact that extends into their daily lives.

Japanese tea rooms are private in nature, and the tea ceremony combines Zen Buddhism and philosophy to form a unique art form.

After Chirikyu, the size of a tea room was only about eight square feet, a space that accommodated no more than five people. There were even tea rooms that were less than three square feet, designed to create a kind of confinement that would help focus attention while maintaining a certain spirituality.

There is an asymmetry and imperfect fluidity in the design of the architecture and the tea sets, the flower arrangements, and the hanging scrolls present a soft ambiance in the flow of light.

Traditional tea rooms have low entrances, and guests need to crawl in on their knees.

The rituals and steps involved in making tea are elaborate and probably take several hours.

The book speaks carefully about its spatial aesthetics in relation to philosophy, the religious context.

In Japanese aesthetics there is a love of the broken and a rejection of the perfect, because perfection implies stagnation and the inability to grow, and once perfect, it is no longer part of a vibrant process.

So asymmetry is welcome in its architectural aesthetic. Asymmetry is not a static fact, but a living process of growth, change, and interdependence. It is considered one of the most prominent features of Japanese architecture.

It has been argued that Japanese aesthetics is based on the concept of dynamic aesthetics, which includes the perception of the transience of everything.

This philosophical perception I think also applies to human beings, who are more lovable and a bit more human-like with their flaws, I wonder if it also lies in their vitality of change and growth?

A very favorite book, very seriously in the discussion of tea, tea ceremony, tea room, architectural aesthetics and philosophy.