Kōka

Standing in the Japanese garden of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, the tea house Kōka was designed by Nakagawa Sason (Zesoku-an, 1880–1957), a tea master of the Mushakōjisenke school, built by the Osaka sukiya master carpenter Hirata Masaya (1900–1980), and framed in 1936. Prince Asaka Yasuhiko is said to have named it himself and brushed its name tablet.

It has three seats: a small room, a large room and a ryūrei (table-and-chair) seat. The main roof is pantiled, while the eaves are of wooden shingles wrapped in copper sheet. Chair-style ryūrei seats spread after the war and were rare in pre-war tea houses. The high ceiling gives a bright, open interior, reflecting the prince's taste in harmony with the Art Deco main building.

It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2015 together with the main building and seismically reinforced in 2016. The tea house is open year-round from 10:00 to 16:30, with visitors admitted to the ryūrei seat only. It is not rented out; a tea gathering here can be experienced through the museum's tea room programs.