a tea house in Kyoto: Taian tea house

A: A space for displaying calligraphy or flower with a vase, called Tokonoma
B: Window
C: Entrance for a host
D: Entrance for a guest
E: A space for boiling water

Sorry for not being photo!!

These three are my old pencil drawings of a tea house: Two are the inside and the last one is the outside.

A tea house is called Taian with only two tatami mats in area, and with just about 1.8 meters cubic. Inside it used to sit two people, a host and a guest, for having a tea ceremony.

This is made by Senno Rikyu, one of greatest founders of a tea ceremony. I think this is the most excellent tea house in Japan.

Anyway, why is this house so small?

Because he would like to make a very very simple and minimum house with less decorations to concentrate on tea ceremony and he regarded tea ceremony as a kind of Zen training.

This is tiny house but doesn't feel so much little. A person in the house feel as if he were comfortably surrounded by the natural surroundings. The windows are covered with thin paper and the light through the papers of the little windows let him know even the slight change of the natural surrounding very clearly. Plus, he is surrounded by the wall, the rough and natural texture of earth. He in the house would feel very comfortable because of the light and wall.
Location by Google Map