The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.51

The Tea-Room;

The Abode of the Unsymmetrical; The Imperfect

「The tea-room(the Sukiya) does not pretend to be other than a mere cottage-a straw hut, as we call it.
The original ideographs for Sukiya mean the Above of Fancy.
Latterly the various tea-masters substituted various Chinese charactets according to their conception of the tea-room, and the term Sukiya may signify the Above of Vacancy of the Abode of the Unsymmetrical.
It is an Abode of Fancy insamuch as it is an ephemeral structure built to house a poetic impulse.
It is an Abode of Vacancy inasmuch as it is devoid of ornamentation except for what may be placedin it to satisfy some aesthetic need of the moment.
It is an Abode of the Unsymmetrical inasmuch as it is consecrated to the workship of the Imperfect, purposely leaving some thing unfinished for the play of the imagination to complete.
The ideals of Teaism have since the sixteenth century influenced our architecture to such a degree that the ordinary Japanese inferior of the present day, on account of the extreme simplicity and chasteness of it scheme of decoration, appears to foreigner almost barren.」(From the Book of Tea-The Tea-Room, pp.54-55, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo, Japan)

From the above descrived sentences, you, who have never looked and lived in Japanese-style house, might be difficult to image and to find the artistic feeling.

I think the essential artistic values are in the Abode of Unsymmetical Simplicity and the Imperfect sence to the imaginatory stimulation of completion.

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Picture: Olibe Gｌazed Crock by keitoku Kato
Image Designer: Izumi Mori