Keywords
Architecture
Tea Houses
The lintel of the alcove *tokonoma 床の間, in a tea room or a window in a shoin style *shoin-zukuri 書院造 reception room. It has a transverse trim with straight grain on the upper part parallel to the bottom transverse trim *tokogamachi 床框. The lintel is a little higher than the usual height of the inside measurement *uchinori 内法, of the entrance. Between the lintel and ceiling is a small wall. In a tea ceremony room, it is made with comparatively thin, straight-grained Japanese cedar, red pine, or paulownia, but occasionally with small branches from miscellaneous trees or bamboo. The front surface of the wood is sometimes scraped and polished. This style of lintel was already in use by the Muromachi period.