Ajiro-tenjō

What an ajiro-tenjō is

An ajiro-tenjō is a ceiling surfaced with thin strips of wood or bamboo woven together in a plaited pattern. The weave is the finish, and the overlapping strips make the surface.

It belongs to the Chashitsu. The tea room at the Oshima Residence in Aichi Prefecture, built in 1826 and moved in the Meiji period, is described as a single-storey timber building, Kirizuma-zukuri with Sangawara-buki, with a preparation room and an anteroom south of its four-and-a-half-mat tea room. The ceiling over the host's seat is set lower and woven; the ceiling over the guests is set higher and boarded with bamboo battens.

That arrangement is the point worth taking. Within one small room the ceiling changes both height and material according to who sits beneath it.

Four and a half mats of floor therefore carry two ceilings. A tea room does not use a single ceiling because the positions within it do not carry the same meaning.

Set against the coffered ceiling

Where a Gō-tenjō builds an ordered grid and signals rank, this type composes its surface out of the character of the material. The instinct is the same one that leads Sukiya-zukuri to leave out the markers of formality.

Other types appear in the same setting. The small reception room at the Hiramatsu Residence in Nagano Prefecture, built in 1916, is described as having a Tokonoma, a low cupboard, a sunken hearth and a boat-bottom ceiling, which rises at the centre and falls to either side.

When visiting, notice that the ceiling depends on where you are standing. Move across the room while looking up and the line where height and material change becomes obvious.