Koyomibari-no-seki 暦張の席

Keywords
Architecture
Tea Houses

Also called Koyomitei 暦亭. The old calendar papers that were pasted to the base of the mud plaster wall of a small tea ceremony room to achieve a rustic simplicity. In an entry written in 1587 in *Sōtan nikki 宗湛日記, the diary of Kamiya Sōtan 神谷宗湛 (1551-1635), there is a reference to a two mat room that had an alcove about 1 m 38 cm and had calendar papers pasted to the wall. Calendars, used for the tea ceremony room wall paper, were common in the Momoyama period, but recent investigations indicate that the oldest extant example is dated 1626. Example : Joan 如庵, originally built by Oda Uraku 織田有楽 (1547-1621) at Kenninji 建仁寺, in Kyoto. In 1872 it was purchased by the Mitsui family and moved to Ōiso 大磯 in Kanagawa Prefecture. Now it is in the Urakuen 有楽苑 (Uraku gardens) at Inuyama 犬山, Aichi Prefecture.