nana’s green tea KUMAMOTO PARCO
Kumamoto, Japan / 2013

“Shoko-ken”

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 designed 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.

Tadaoki Hosokawa, who was closely connected to Kumamoto Prefecture, had served to authorities of the times such as Yoshiaki Ashikaga, Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa and built the foundation of Higo Hosokawa Clan that continues till this day. Moreover, like his father Yusai, Tadaoki was famous as a person of a culture as well as a master of the tea ceremony. He is one of Sen-no-Rikyu’s 7 leading pupils.
At the Kitano Grand Tea Ceremony, he built a tea house named “Shoko-an” (a house built under a pine tree). This house was later called “Shoko-den”. The size of “Shoko-en” is nijo-daimoku, the floor is shimo-tokoza, the fire pit is daime-giri, the roof is kirizuma-zukuri / kokera-buki and the alcove post is made of unpeeled pine. Inside the room, there are a two-level shelf, a folding screen and a shitaji-mado window. The color of the wall is black, which is unusual. Although the size of the room is nijo-daimoku, the windows are displayed as in a yojo-han sized room. Therefore, inside the “Shoko-an” is very bright. This time, I had recreated “Shoko-ken”, which was made by Tadaoki that had a close relationship with Kumamoto, in a modern style. What I actually did was to use a expand metal as a partition and paint the color differently on each side. When you look it from one side, it is beige as matched to color of trees around it. However, when you go inside, the space is surrounded by black walls. I had reproduced the distinctive black wall of “Shoko-ken” by using a modern material.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

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Shoten Kenchiku Sep. 2014 Issue