is a seventeenth-century

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese teahouse ('' chashitsu'') located in Inuyama,

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

. ''Jo-an'' is said to be one of the three finest teahouses in Japan and has been in its current location in Inuyama since 1972. It was designated a National Treasure in 1951.

History

''Jo-an'' was originally built around 1618 in Kennin-ji,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, for Oda Urakusai, the younger brother of ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

and a disciple of tea ceremony master Sen no Rikyū. ''Jo-an'' has been relocated a number of times, but since 1972 has formed part of the Urakuen gardens in Inuyama,

, part of the historic

Owari Province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces w ...

which the Oda clan ruled starting in the 15th century.

Architecture

Jo-an is approached through the '' roji'' ('dewy ground') garden. It consists of a ''chashitsu'' (tea room), a three tatami mat '' mizuya'' (preparation room), and a one-and-a-half tatami mat ''rōka no ma'' (corridor room). The ''chashitsu'' is composed of two and a half tatami mats, a ''daime'' (three quarter tatami mat), and a '' toko''. The building has a shake roof and a '' nijiriguchi'' ('crawling-in entrance').

References

External links

* Chashitsu National Treasures of Japan Buildings and structures in Inuyama, Aichi {{Japan-struct-stub

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links