Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room

Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room: Tea and Prayer Under One Roof

The Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room (樂家住宅茶室麁閑亭, Raku-ke jūtaku chashitsu Sokantei) is a small single-storey building on the north side of the main house in the Raku potters' compound in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto, containing a 3-mat tea room and a Buddhist altar room; it is dated to the early Meiji period and was registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2007.

Its ridge runs east to west. It measures 2 and a half bays by 1 and a half bays, with a building area of 18 square metres, under a gabled roof of pantiles with a pent eave projecting on the east side.

The date is uncertain: the Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the early Meiji period, whereas the Raku Museum says the family house was rebuilt in 1855.

Why It Was Registered

Only three buildings on the lot were listed as structures that would be difficult to reproduce, and the Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room is one of them. The Agency singles out its sukiya workmanship, above all the use of natural logs, stripped of bark but left round, as posts.

Round-log posts are a hallmark of rustic tea rooms, and they are unforgiving: every joint has to be scribed to an irregular surface. In a building of just 18 square metres, the carpenter's skill is on show in every corner.

A Tea Room and an Altar Room Side by Side

The plan is the surprise. The eastern half is a 3-mat tea room; the western half is a room for the family's Buddhist altar. Tea and household devotion share a single roof.

The altar room opens on its south side onto the corridor of the main house, so the Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room is reached from inside the home rather than across a garden. It is a working part of family life, not a pavilion kept apart for guests.

Three mats is an intimate size, room for a handful of guests sitting knee to knee, which is exactly the setting Raku bowls are made for: held in both hands and drunk from at close quarters. The Agency's record does not explain how the eastern eave was used.

Seeing the Sokantei Tea Room

The Raku Family Residence Sokantei Tea Room stands inside the grounds, behind the main house, and cannot be seen from Aburanokoji Street. It is part of a private home and is not open.

If you want to drink from a Raku bowl yourself, the Raku Museum next door holds a tea gathering four times a year using pieces from its collection. It takes place in the museum's tea room, not here. Directions are on the Raku Family Residence page.