Builds authentic tea rooms in the Kanto region, inviting Kyoto craftsmen.
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Source: tutikabekoubou.jp
A temple-carpentry firm and first-class architect office based in Isehara, Kanagawa. Principal Yukio Uchida trained in Kyoto and founded the company in 1998, working on temples, shrines, cultural-property repairs and sukiya. He holds the Chief Craftsman for Cultural-Property Woodwork certification — about 300 people hold it nationwide — and the firm takes on repairs of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties.
For sukiya work it teams up with architects who serve tea masters in Kyoto and invites Kyoto plasterers, joiners, paperhangers and tatami makers. It pays close attention to the details: bamboo-lath earthen walls and shitaji windows, tatami laid to tea-room rules, and the paper finish of the serving door.
Besides new tea rooms, it converts Japanese rooms into tea rooms, adds mizuya preparation areas and cuts in sunken hearths, for any school of tea. It also hides air conditioning above the ceiling with discreet vents so as not to spoil the room's atmosphere.
A small two-and-a-half-mat room with a wooden board seat and a mukō-giri hearth, added to an existing building. Because the site is in a semi-fire-prevention district, the crawl-in door and outer storm door were made as fire doors. Designed in-house.
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A three-and-three-quarter-mat (daime) tea room and mizuya added to an existing house. Designed by Saimon Toshifumi Architects, who work for Kyoto tea masters, with plasterers, joiners, fusuma and tatami makers brought from Kyoto. The air conditioning sits in the roof space so it does not spoil the design. Tile and copper roofs.
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A separate residence built by an Omotesenke tea teacher for holding tea gatherings. It has a three-mat small room with a central board (nakaita) and a large room; the living room used as the waiting room has a sunken hearth for a rustic touch. Tile and copper roofs.
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At a Rinzai temple, the entrance and large room were turned into a tea room alongside the main-hall repair. Designed by Saimon Toshifumi Architects. The shitaji windows kept their original design but were rebuilt from the bamboo lath up, and Kyoto craftsmen handled roofing, plaster, joinery, paperwork and tatami. Kyoto clay walls on bamboo lath; titanium-alloy roof.
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A renovation designed by Kiyoshi Yasui, former vice-president of Yasui Moku Kōmuten. It served as a practice site for Sei-juku, his sukiya study group for young carpenters, and Uchida joined as a carpenter (subcontractor). Thatch and copper roofs.
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Also designed by Kiyoshi Yasui as a Sei-juku practice project; Uchida took part as a carpenter in renovating this tile-roofed guest hall.
View on official site ↗Photos: Uchida Komuten official website
In his thirties, principal Yukio Uchida met the late Kiyoshi Yasui, former vice-president of Kyoto's Yasui Moku Kōmuten, the firm behind work on Katsura Villa, Joan and Taian. Through Yasui's study group for young carpenters, Sei-juku, he learned the basics on Kyoto sukiya repair sites and building tours.
Later Kyoto architect Toshifumi Saimon — who trained under master builder Takaaki Yamamoto on the introduction of tea-room scholar Masao Nakamura — began entrusting projects to the firm, and Uchida continues to study the Usui school of sukiya. He also studies tea himself and belongs to an Omotesenke men's tea group in Kanagawa.
Specialist sukiya plasterers come from Kyoto for bamboo-lath earthen walls, shitaji windows and the clay lining of a proper hearth. Tatami are made by a family of tatami makers who serve the Omotesenke Fushin-an, and fusuma and shōji by a paperhanger who serves the Urasenke Konnichi-an.
The site explains each trade's key points — for example, tea-room tatami are not fit for tea unless finished to the rules, and papering a serving door is said to take ten years of training to master.
Traditional timber frames are flexible structures held by nuki tie-beams and earthen walls, so ordinary bracing can upset their balance. The firm works with a structural engineer and designs reinforcement using limit-strength calculation.
It surveys column tilt, uneven floors and damage under the floor and in the roof, writes up a report, and proposes bearing walls that keep the look — earthen walls, lattice walls or diagonal boarding. In one main hall, re-roofing from tile to titanium alloy cut about 20 tonnes.
Photos: Uchida Komuten official website
| Company | Uchida Komuten Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Address | 6682-1 Okazaki, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1135 |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Representative | Yukio Uchida |
| Business | Temple and shrine building, tea rooms and sukiya, cultural-property repair, renovation of old houses and Western-style buildings, mikoshi and festival floats, houses |
| Licenses | Kanagawa Governor construction license (General-06) No. 68877; first-class architect office, Kanagawa No. 15225 |
| Phone | 0120-39-6590 (toll-free in Japan, 9:00–17:00) |
| Certifications | The principal is a certified Chief Craftsman for Cultural-Property Woodwork (about 300 nationwide) |
| Specialty | Builds tea rooms in Kanto with plasterers, joiners, paperhangers and tatami makers invited from Kyoto |
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