Tai-an

A National Treasure tea room at Myōki-an. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs database, it was built around the Tenshō era (1573–92) to the taste of Sen no Rikyū and became so famous that it was copied many times. It comprises a two-mat room with a corner hearth and a cave-like alcove, a one-mat anteroom with a board strip, and a service room, with an earthen eave on the south side. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1903 and a National Treasure in 1951.

Myōki-an relates that during the Battle of Yamazaki, Hideyoshi had Rikyū build a two-mat tea room in his camp, which was later moved to the temple (other accounts say it was built here from the start or moved from Rikyū's residence). Of Japan's three National Treasure tea rooms (Tai-an, Jo-an and Mittan), Tai-an is the only one reliably attributed to Rikyū himself, the temple says.

The roof is gabled and shingled. The combination of a sloping and a battened ceiling, and the plastered-over corners of the alcove (muro-doko), keep the two-mat room from feeling cramped. It is said to be the first tea room with a crawl-in entrance; its walls show straw fibre on the surface, its posts are Kitayama cedar logs, and its lattice windows use reeds from the Yodo River.

Visits are by advance application on a return postcard only, on Sunday mornings. The resident priest guides visitors, and photography and video are prohibited.