Practicum

Sit Awhile and Have Some Tea: A Comparative Analysis of Three Japanese Tea Ceremony Houses at Public Japanese-style Gardens in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

I came to art history through my interest in the Japanese tea ceremony, or chanoyu. My research is on the chashitsu, the Japanese tea house or room that forms the core of the built environment for chanoyu. The Pacific Northwest region has several Japanese-style public gardens that feature functional chashitsu. I focus on the relationship between the design of chashitsu and their specific functionality, especially through the lens of events held there commonly called Tea Ceremony Presentations, or Demonstrations. These Presentations do not typically take place in chanoyu’s homeland of Japan, and the three chashitsu in Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland reflect in their designs both their placement abroad and the functional requirements of a Presentation, which differ from other types of chanoyu gatherings.