Tokonoma

What a tokonoma is

A tokonoma is the raised recess set into one wall of a reception room, where a hanging scroll or a flower arrangement is placed. It is the feature by which the standing of a room is read.

Japanese records usually write the word in katakana rather than in characters. The Sasaki birthplace in Mie Prefecture is described as having its principal reception room at the far end of the northern row, with an alcove and a flanking recess. The Tsuzuki Residence in Gifu Prefecture, built in 1841, is described as having a rear suite of a twelve-and-a-half-mat main room, a seven-and-a-half-mat anteroom and a Buddhist altar room, with an alcove and shelving in the main room and a larger alcove in the anteroom.

That second entry shows two alcoves in one house, differing in size from room to room.

Prized timbers sometimes go into them. The Arai Residence in Tokyo, from the early Showa period, is described as using rosewood, ebony and other choice woods to make its alcove and study bay into a rich interior.

In the tea room

A Chashitsu may use a shortened mat for its alcove. The tea house at Chikushi Jogakuen in Fukuoka Prefecture, built in 1940, is described as placing a four-and-a-half-mat tea room to the north and a six-mat preparation room to the south, with an alcove of that reduced size and a sunken brazier in the preparation room as well.

The small reception room at the Hiramatsu Residence in Nagano Prefecture, built in 1916, is described as having an alcove, a low cupboard, a sunken hearth and a boat-bottom ceiling, and the entry treats the four together as evidence of careful work. Reading the standing of a room means reading that group rather than any one part of it.

The Japanese word appears in several written forms, with compounds for a larger alcove and for the recess beside it. Following the form used by whichever record is being quoted avoids introducing a distinction the source did not make.