Wood Identification of Tea Rooms in the Urasenke Residence Designated as an Important Cultural Property

Tazuru Suyako, Sugiyama Junji

doi:10.2488/jwrs.67.20

<p>Wood identification was performed on 63 elements from tea rooms such as Konnichi-an, Totsutotsusai, and so on, located in the residence of the head of the Urasenke School in Kyoto, Japan, prior to the restoration. The aim of this study was to identify the wood species in these tea rooms designated as important cultural property for restoration and to understand wood selection for tea rooms in Urasenke, which is one of the various schools of tea ceremony in Japan. This research is part of a larger project in which the wood species of tea rooms in Japan underwent microscopic wood identification. Aside from conventional optical microscopy, synchrotron x-ray micro-tomography for very small samples was performed for wood identification. Our identification revealed that 16 wood species namely, Abies sp., Actinidia sp., Betula sp., Carpinus sp., Castanea crenata, Castanopsis sp., Chamaecyparis obtusa, Chamaecyparis pisifera, Cryptomeria japonica, Magnolia sp., Morus bombycis, Pinus subgen. Diploxylon sp., Podocarpus macrophyllus, Stewartia sp., Thuja standishii and Thujopsis dolabrata were used. It was revealed that Actinidia sp., a rare species for construction members, was used for the Toko bashira and Toko gamachi of the Totsutotsusai tea room. It would enable us to say that our approach could expand conventional knowledge of Urasenke wood selection, as well as Kimura Seibei's conception of wood selection for tea ceremony rooms.</p>

Wood Identification of Tea Rooms in the Urasenke Residence Designated as an Important Cultural Property

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