Turning a washitsu into a tea room — what actually has to change

A 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.

When people hear "building a tea room," most picture a free-standing room newly built in a garden. In practice, though, the most common starting point is a washitsu — a Japanese-style room — that you already have at home.

Surprisingly little separates a washitsu from a tea room. The core of it is the ro, the sunken hearth. A square is cut into the tatami and a hearth box is set into the floor below, where charcoal heats the kettle. Whether or not there is a ro is the single biggest dividing line.

[Stage 1] No construction — start with a furo or a portable hearth. The furo is a brazier that sits on top of the tatami, and it is the proper form from May to October. A portable hearth lets you try the ro format without cutting the floor at all. If you simply want to begin practising, this stage is enough. It costs nothing and involves no building work.

[Stage 2] Cutting the ro — this is where actual construction begins. It is not only a matter of cutting the tatami: the hearth box needs space beneath the floor and reinforcement around it, which makes it a structural question. Detached houses usually have room under the floor, while in an apartment the deciding factor is how much the floor can be raised. Always have someone inspect the site.

[Stage 3] The full setting — a tokonoma alcove, a mizuya (the preparation sink where bowls are washed and utensils laid out), a nijiri-guchi crawl entrance, and a roji garden path. At this point it becomes a tea room in the full sense. Note that although the nijiri-guchi is the emblem of the sōan tea room, it is not compulsory; larger rooms normally use a kinin-guchi, a doorway you enter standing up.

Who you ask changes with the stage, too. Cutting a hearth alone can sometimes be handled by a tatami shop or a local builder, but once the alcove, the mizuya and the choice of materials come into it, a company that works in the sukiya tradition will get you there faster.

The important thing is to decide how far you want to go before you make contact. If someone expecting Stage 1 receives a Stage 3 estimate, the conversation never quite meets. When the stage is clear, a builder can come straight back with a realistic proposal.