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Exhibition

The Arts of Tea

September 15, 1988–July 15, 1989

Sixty years ago, in the fall of 1928, a shipment of crates arrived here from Japan containing the elements of a teahouse. The teahouse and its waiting room had originally been built in 1917 by a Japanese architect for his private residence in Tokyo. It would be nearly thirty years before the plan of another architect, then director of this museum, Fiske Kimball, was completed, with the opening of the Museum's Far Eastern wing in 1957. The teahouse takes its name from the three characters on the wood tablet hanging under the eaves, Sunkaraku, or Evanescent Joys. It is built in the traditional style called sukiya-tsukuri (artless building). The simplicity and restraint of the architecture reflect the spirit of the tea ceremony, offering a temporary refuge from the complexities of daily life. The drinking of tea was introduced to Japan by Zen Buddhist monks who used it as a stimulant during long hours of religious meditation. Early teabowls and tea caddies were imported from China, and the aesthetic of Zen Buddhism gradually extended to all aspects of the tea ceremony and related arts. The monochrome ink paintings reveal the preference for suggestion over statement. The empty spaces on the paper allow the viewer to participate in the painting. In ceramics, the Zen taste is reflected in the love of the irregular shape and the imperfect glaze. Cracks in teabowls are carefully repaired with gold lacquer as if to emphasize the flaw. The delight in natural materials already evident in the construction of the teahouse is echoed in the use of bamboo for the tea scoop or for the flower container. A selection of tea-ceremony utensils and related art from the collection is on exhibition in the galleries adjacent to the teahouse.


Main Building

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Architectural elements
Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku (Evanescent Joys)
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This ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the Japanese architect Ögi Rodö. Designed in the rustic tradition or "artless style" of the fifteenth-century artist Oguri Sotan, it also incorporates eighteenth-century elements. The Sunkaraku teahouse originally stood on the grounds of Rodö's private residence in Tokyo. He sold it to the Museum in 1928, and in 1957 it was installed at the Museum, making it the only work by Rodö outside Japan. The garden setting you see now was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui.

The apparent artlessness of the teahouse in fact conceals acute attention to detail and to aesthetic pleasure. The architecture of both the waiting room and the tearoom reveals a special delight in natural materials such as cypress shingles (for the roof) and bamboo. Proximity to nature is also emphasized by the garden, visible from both buildings. Everything inside the tearoom has been planned to stimulate the mind and to delight the eye. Rough, unfinished vertical posts remind guests of their imperfections and their oneness with nature, and the tea utensils enhance their sensitivity to natural textures and artistic creativity.

The tea ceremony offers a temporary respite from the complexities of daily life. This mood perhaps inspired a famous devotee of the tea cult, Lord Fumai Matsudaira (1750-1818), when he autographed the tablet over the teahouse with the inscription "Sun Ka Raku," or Evanescent Joys.

Architectural elements
Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku (Evanescent Joys)
,

This ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the Japanese architect Ögi Rodö. Designed in the rustic tradition or "artless style" of the fifteenth-century artist Oguri Sotan, it also incorporates eighteenth-century elements. The Sunkaraku teahouse originally stood on the grounds of Rodö's private residence in Tokyo. He sold it to the Museum in 1928, and in 1957 it was installed at the Museum, making it the only work by Rodö outside Japan. The garden setting you see now was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui.

The apparent artlessness of the teahouse in fact conceals acute attention to detail and to aesthetic pleasure. The architecture of both the waiting room and the tearoom reveals a special delight in natural materials such as cypress shingles (for the roof) and bamboo. Proximity to nature is also emphasized by the garden, visible from both buildings. Everything inside the tearoom has been planned to stimulate the mind and to delight the eye. Rough, unfinished vertical posts remind guests of their imperfections and their oneness with nature, and the tea utensils enhance their sensitivity to natural textures and artistic creativity.

The tea ceremony offers a temporary respite from the complexities of daily life. This mood perhaps inspired a famous devotee of the tea cult, Lord Fumai Matsudaira (1750-1818), when he autographed the tablet over the teahouse with the inscription "Sun Ka Raku," or Evanescent Joys.

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