Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin

What Is the Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin?

The Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin (藤田家住宅茶室養心, Fujita-ke Jūtaku Chashitsu Yōshin) is a freestanding Chashitsu tea room of about 1935 on the grounds of the Fujita Family Residence in Yamana-cho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto, a single-story wooden building of 18 square meters that was entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2015.

Tea Room Yoshin stands northwest of the main house, with the garden between them. Inside there are only two spaces: a four-and-a-half-mat tea room and a Mizuya, the small pantry where utensils are prepared. According to the family, the name Yōshin, "nourishing the heart," was given by Horinouchi Sōkan, a tea master of the Omotesenke school.

Why It Was Registered

The Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 26, 2015 (registration number 26-0467), for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs makes two points. First, its floor plan and the way its ceilings are composed recall Yūin (又隠), a celebrated tea room of the Urasenke school. Second, it is a good example of a Kyoto townhouse giving tea its own separate building.

That second point is less ordinary than it sounds. Most townhouse families made tea in a corner of a reception room, and the main house here has a six-mat room built so that a hearth can be opened in the floor. The Fujitas went further and set a dedicated tea house at the back of the garden, a clear sign of how seriously a prosperous Nishijin weaving family of the 1930s took the tea ceremony.

Highlights

A Lopsided Roof

The roof of the Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin is a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri form in which one slope is drawn out longer than the other, a style called maneki-zukuri, or "beckoning" roof. It is laid with pantiles, partly finished in sheet metal, and on the south side a second small gabled roof with a Geya lean-to projects forward. Seen from the garden, the uneven eaves give the little building a sense of movement.

Two Ceilings in One Small Room

Inside, the ceiling changes halfway across the room. Over the alcove it is a flat woven Ajiro-tenjō. On the opposite side, above the low crawl-through entrance (nijiriguchi) that guests stoop to pass through, the ceiling slopes with the roof itself, a treatment called kakekomi. Flat and sloping planes together make four and a half mats feel deeper than they are.

This combination of plan and ceilings is what the national record compares to Yūin. Pairing a woven ceiling with a sloping one over a four-and-a-half-mat room is regarded as one of the basic patterns of the Sen family tea rooms.

Seeing Tea Room Yoshin

The Fujita Family Residence Tea Room Yoshin cannot be seen from the street. It sits behind the main house across the garden, so even a look at the exterior requires joining the reserved tour of the house. The head of the family leads the tour, but the official website does not say whether guests enter the tea room itself, so ask when you book.

If you do go in, mind your head at the low entrance and under the sloping ceiling, and keep bags clear of the delicate earthen walls.