For anyone building a tea room for the first time — style, cost and choosing a company, made simple.
A historical research work on Aritai-an, a hidden tea room used by Okubo Toshimichi during the late Edo and early Meiji periods. This newly published Kindle book explores the political significance and architectural details of this tea room, rediscovered in 2019.
ReadIn the bamboo grove beyond the shrine gate at Ohmiya Hachimangu in Suginami stand two tea rooms, Tsūsen-an and Shinsen-tei. Here is what the shrine's own precinct guide tells us.
ReadA tea room doesn't have to be built from scratch. If you start from a washitsu you already have, here are the three stages of how far to go.
ReadStyle, location and budget. Settle these three and choosing a builder goes surprisingly fast.
ReadA two-mat universe or an eight-mat guest room? How to choose by working back from how you'll use it.
ReadWhere the money goes. A gentle breakdown to help you read an estimate.
ReadWhere to look in a portfolio to gauge a company's real skill.
ReadCarpenters, architects, kit makers, drop-in rooms. Our 29 listed companies fall into six kinds — and what you want decides where to go.
ReadIn a corner of a condominium living room — and returnable to a plain room when you stop. A look at not building, with real published prices.
Read10 of our 29 listings are in the Kansai region, most of them in Kyoto. Daitoku-ji, the Kyoto State Guest House, Katsura, museums in Paris — the facts of what they've actually built.
ReadA tea room in a Tokyo house or condominium: new build, renovation of a room you have, or simply placing one. The four Kantō-based companies among our 29 listings, and one with a recorded Tokyo delivery — facts only.
ReadA tea room away from daily life, in a villa or a detached annex. Three ways to commission one — architect, sukiya builder, or kit — compared through our listed companies.
ReadHow much is a kit or drop-in tea room? Of our seven listed makers, two publish prices on their official sites. Here are the figures, and what they leave out.
ReadFor inbound visitors, corporate staff training, private dining. Building a tea room in a commercial or public facility involves different rules and thinking.
ReadDōjinsai at Ginkaku-ji, Taian, Joan, Mittan: tracing how the tea room was born and handed down, through surviving buildings and their official heritage records.
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