Konnichian — The Urasenke Home

Important Cultural Property and Historical Site

(Not open to the public)

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Kan'untei "Cold Cloud Arbor" Because the wabi-style tearooms Konnichian and Yuin were not appropriate for receiving members of the aristocracy, Sotan built a shoin-style room, Kan'untei. The room comprises eight tatami mats with a shoin window-shelf and an orthodox toko alcove. The painter KANO Tan'yu decorated the main room's six fusuma panels with paintings of eight Chinese wizards. Next to the toko is a one-tatami space, called the Yanagi-no-ma, or "willow room."       Although Sotan designed Kan'untei as a formal shoin, he imbued it with a wabi feeling through the unconventional use of architectural elements. For example, the room features a divided ceiling in three levels. The position of the sunken hearth (ro), in the right corner of the tatami where the tea is made, is also a feature conventionally used in rooms smaller than four-and-a-half tatami. Sotan also designed an arch-shaped transom inspired by a comb he received from Empress Tofukumon'in. Kan'untei is one of the most distinctive rooms in the compound because of its contrasting styles.

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