is one type of Japanese residential architectural style. Suki (ateji: 数寄 or 数奇) means refined, well cultivated taste and delight in elegant pursuits, and refers to enjoyment of the exquisitely performed tea ceremony.
The word originally meant a small structure for the Japanese tea ceremony (known as a chashitsu) and was associated with ikebana and other Japanese traditional arts. It has come to indicate a style of designing public facilities and private homes based on tea house aesthetics.
Historically and by tradition, sukiya-zukuri is characterised by a use of natural materials, especially wood. In contemporary architecture, its formal and spatial concepts are kept alive in modern materials such as steel, glass and concrete.
Origins
In 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98) employed the tea master Sen no Rikyū as his advisor on aesthetic matters. In the compound of Hideyoshi's imposing Jurakudai castle in Kyoto Rikyū designed an eighteen mat building known as the Coloured Shoin which was thought to be the first example of sukiya-zukuri architecture.
The style developed during the rest of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568–1600) and was characterised by small rooms of usually four and a half tatami, or even less, that had a tokonoma and shelves. These buildings were normally entered through a garden often by means of an indirect curved or diagonal path that would not allow an instant view of the teahouse.
Sukiya-zukuri architecture incorporates tea house aesthetics and encompasses all sorts of building types including private dwellings, villas, restaurants and inns. One of the best known examples is the Katsura Detached Palace in Kyoto. In the Edo period (1600–1868) sukiya-zukuri became popular among townspeople, and the majority of houses came to be built in this style.
Comparison with similar styles
In the Azuchi-Momoyama period not only sukiya style but the contrasting shoin-zukuri (書院造) of residences of the warrior class developed. While sukiya was a small space, simple and austere, shoin-zukuri style was that of large, magnificent reception areas, the setting for the pomp and ceremony of the feudal lords. As an example, in a shoin, the flower arrangement in the tokonoma is indicative of the relative wealth of the host, the guest however sits with their back to it as it is not meant for their enjoyment. Whereas, in a tearoom, the guest sits facing the tokonoma to enjoy its beauty.
A comparison with shoin-zukuri makes clear the defining stylistic features of sukiya-zukuri. The "frieze rails" called nageshi connect grooved, square columns in shoin-zukuri, the transom is often elaborately carved, the ceiling is coffered or railed with a hexagonal rail and the wall surfaces are finished and often decorated with murals. The toko alcove, tana shelves and shoin built-in desk are arranged according to a fixed formula.
In contrast, sukiya-zukuri often uses unsquared columns, even simple polished tree trunks, or wood with the bark in place for the nakabashira central column. The walls are simply finished with a natural earthen plaster, and any carving in the ranma transom is kept simple. The ceiling of boards is railed with flat, rectangular boards. Although there is a tokonoma alcove and tana shelves and maybe also shoin in the main room, their arrangement and treatment are free. The beauty of sukiya-zukuri comes from the delicate sensibility of the slender wood elements and other natural materials used, and the simplicity of ornamentation, if any.
Development
In the Coloured Shoin teahouse Sen no Rikyū stained the timbers with a mixture of Bengal red dye and black dye to make them look sooty and old. In contrast, his student's Oribe and Enshu preferred brighter colours and natural finishes. It is thought that this change coincided with the development of the regular wood plane that allowed a more consistent finish to wood and a better appreciation of the natural qualities of unfinished wood. It is a trait that has characterised the sukiya style since.
After the Meiji Restoration in 1867 the samurai class and thus the shoin-style lost its reason for being whereas the sukiya style continued to develop and was reassessed for modernist architecture.
The sukiya style requires a subtle harmony between the principles required in its construction, these include the relationship between the client, the architect and the carpenter. Both the architect and the carpenter should have a profound understanding of the materials employed. There is an example of a carpenter asked to build a sukiya style house declining because he lost his tools in World War Two and he felt that he would not be in a position to work satisfactorily.