nana’s green tea GRAND FRONT OSAKA
Osaka, Japan / 2013

“Hiroma and Koma”

Nanaha Co, Ltd is a company that sends the “new form of Japan” to the world through “mattcha”. They provide high quality mattcha in menus that are arranged modernly, such as mattacha latte. The space inside the shop is desired to be a “modern tearoom”, not a “Japanese style tea room”. According to the owner, it is a way of expressing their feeling to make a shop that allows the customers to enjoy the traditional Japanese culture with a modern interpretation.

In Japanese tea ceremonies, tea rooms that are larger than 4.5 tatami floor is called hiroma while venues smaller than that are called koma. Tea rooms that are exactly 4.5 tatami floor can be used both as hiroma and koma.
In koma, no shelves, including daisu, are used. Tea is made in the preparation area and then brought to the room. Opposed to koma, where decorations are only placed on the floor, in hiroma, tea is prepared inside the room, where many decorations as well as shelves, including daisu, are used. So to say, koma is the world of wabi-cha and hiroma is that of shoin.
At nana’s green tea UMEDA KITA GRAND FRONT, I have placed booths that are smaller than 4.5 tatami floor. As the decoration inside the booths is very plain, the customers can feel the atmosphere of koma. However, if you look from outside, the booths look like the decorations of hiroma. In other words, I have created a modern tea room space, where you can feel the two types of tea rooms that differ in size.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

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Good Design Cafe Aug. 2016 Issue
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