nana’s green tea YOUME TOWN HATSUKAICHI
Hiroshima, Japan / 2015

“Preparing a fireplace for tea ceremony”

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.

The tea ceremony has walked together with the Japanese architecture.
Shinden-zukuri, an architectural style of court noble’s mansions in the Heian period (794-1185), consists of a central building, to which subsidiary structures were connected by corridors and is encircled a pond and garden. This style made an indoor life more comfortable and was the origin of typical Japanese room.

In the Muromachi period (1336-1573), the traditional performing arts such as Tea party and Renga (linked poem) became popular and they displayed Chinese art crafts on the shelf. This style developed into Shoin-zukuri that gives high priority to treat guests with hospitality.
In this period, actually, a host made a bowl of tea in another room and brought it to the guest room and offered it respectfully. After a while the host prepared a fireplace in the guest room and served tea in front of the guest, resulting in a close distance between the host and the guest. Moreover, this contributed the growth of the tea ceremony culture having a concept like Wabi and finally the tearoom itself had high independence.

In nana’s green tea YOUME TOWN Hatsukaichi, I simply created “a space to serve tea for guests” by comparing a part of the space to the fireplace.
The fireplace, actually a square room, is prepared in the center of the space and divided by partitions made of poles displaying color gradations from vermilion color to transparent, which reminds people of the Itsukushima Shrine and also the ebb and flow of the tide.
Preparing a fireplace added a touch of modern to this tearoom.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto