Sukiya-zukuri

Suki (Ateji: 数寄 or 数奇) means refined, well cultivated taste and delight in elegant pursuits,[1] and refers to enjoyment of the exquisitely performed tea ceremony.

In the compound of Hideyoshi's imposing Jurakudai castle in Kyoto Rikyū designed an eighteen mat building known as the Coloured Shoin which was thought to be the first example of sukiya-zukuri architecture.

[6] Sukiya-zukuri architecture incorporates tea house aesthetics and encompasses all sorts of building types including private dwellings, villas, restaurants and inns.

While sukiya was a small space, simple and austere, shoin-zukuri style was that of large, magnificent reception areas, the setting for the pomp and ceremony of the feudal lords.

As an example, in a shoin, the flower arrangement in the tokonoma is indicative of the relative wealth of the host, the guest however sits with their back to it as it is not meant for their enjoyment.

[11] There is an example of a carpenter asked to build a sukiya style house declining because he lost his tools in World War Two and he felt that he would not be in a position to work satisfactorily.

"[14] That said, in most cases, sukiya design in an urban setting is far from the original spirit of a "mountain retreat in the city" as it was conceived in the 16th century Japan of Sen no Rikyū.

By stacking the opaque wooden sliding doors in a box called a to-bukuro, instead of simply overlapping them, the amount of light in the interior doubled, and unbroken views of the garden could be obtained.

[16][15] To open the building in the morning, each ama-do would be slid along to the end of groove, where they were stacked in a box[15] called a to-bukuro[18] (戸袋, とぶくろ: literally, "door-container").

[15][21] Run-around engawa porches meant that to-bukuro were initially located at the corners, but amado-rotator systems (amado-mawashi) were devised to eliminate this need (see images, and external movie).

[22] During the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, a small Nippon Tea House was built near the North pond that was designed in a loose version of the sukiya-style.

[25] In 1934 in his Okada residence, the architect Sutemi Horiguchi blended elements of the sukiya-style (influenced from the Katsura Detached Palace) in the garden to help fuse western and oriental aspects of the plan.

There is a decided distaste for the imposing straight avenue; instead, there is a preference for the intimate and casual but carefully planned approach which supplies surprises at every turn and leads up to the main objective in a human, natural, unimposing manner.