Issue date: 4/25/07 Section: News

Media Credit: T.C. Clark Jay Van Arsdale, a teacher of Japanese joinery, works Friday in the the garden. Six other colleges in the U.S. have a tea garden, he said. [Click to enlarge]

The Japanese warrior leaves his samurai sword outside because the entrance to the house is small, a symbol of leaving busy thoughts behind.  He kneels to get through the door, a symbol of humbleness.  Inside, there is a four-walled room, but he tries to find the universe within. 

It is a story told by Kazue Masuyama, an assistant professor of Japanese, about the attraction, symbolism and simplicity associated with Japanese tea houses.

Sacramento State will soon have the elements of appeal through simplicity with a Japanese tea house under the Library and a garden under the ramp from the Library Quad to the Library.  The anticipated finish date is the last week of May, with the opening ceremony scheduled for June 4. 

Timothy Fong, director of the Asian American Studies program, is overseeing the tea house project. 

"We very much envision this being a showcase for the university," he said. 

Pat Chirapravati, a professor of Asian arts, said tea ceremonies are a time for meditation and traditional techniques that are performed by the tea master and his or her invitees. 

Japanese tea houses that conduct tea ceremonies were introduced in the 15th century during wartime and have been practiced by emperors, monks, warriors and common people of Japan, she said.  The garden is filled with a rustic look of vegetation and either a dry, pebbly or a wet landscape with a pond, where visitors rid their minds of anything busy. 

The university was able to construct the Japanese tea house and garden at the request of an anonymous donor, Fong said.
   
The donor also donated a rare collection of Japanese tea artifacts, including tea sets, serving bowls and tea cups that have been passed down from tea master to tea master.  The ages of the artifacts are unknown, but it is the lineage that is important, Fong said. 

Jay Van Arsdale, a building contractor who studied Japanese joinery for 30 years and is doing the natural joinery woodwork for the garden, said that Sac State will be one of about five to six other colleges in the U.S. that have a Japanese tea house or garden on campus. 

"It will definitely be a bright spot around campus.  It gets enjoyable to walk across the ramp and look down on it," he said. 

Fong said Cal Poly, Pomona and San Francisco State have tea gardens, but Sac State will have a distinctive combination of both. 

He said the tea house will be used as a multi-purpose facility for hosting seminars or special event lectures. 

The more educationally driven part of the tea house will be used for Japanese language classes, continuing education classes in Japanese flower designs or ethnic studies classes, he said. 

"It's a wonderful place to learn.  It's a beautiful environment. You go inside with the glass wall, with the garden outside and the sunlight coming in because it faces north," Fong said. 

The garden will likely be open daily for visitors, but Fong said he is concerned about vandalism since the gate that Arsdale is constructing doesn't have a lock.  Fong said they are considering a gate lock in the future. 

The tea house, however, will not be open for public use because of its rare artifacts, he said. 

Brian Berry, a senior double major in Asian studies and Japanese said he is glad to see the project will provide another venue of study not available at any other colleges at this scale.
 
"The construction of a tea room not only allows for education about Japanese culture, but it is a sign of respect towards the Japanese culture and community surrounding Sacramento," he said. 

Chirapravati said the beauty of the garden is its simplicity.  The traditional Japanese garden concepts are known as wasi and sabi, both having to do with simplicity and value in weathered items, she said.  For example, rocks that are placed in the garden are carefully chosen with a wear and tear look, she said. 

Masuyama sensei, or teacher, said she hopes that students gain new insight to the Japanese culture through the tea house and garden. 

"I hope they will expose themselves to the new setting and culture and increase awareness that are not common in their upbringing," she said.

Masuyama sensei is also translating the diary of a tea master.  The donor will decide if it will be available for viewing in the tea room. 

Yuko Tsuchiya, a foreign exchange student from Yokohama National University in Japan, is helping Sac State students study Japanese and said she is surprised to see a niche of her country at Sac State. 

"I like the tea garden because it has green around it and some of them are red, which seems like Japan," she said. 

Tsuchiya is also interested in the calligraphy she has seen in the tea house. 

Fong said protocols for tea ceremonies, like taking off shoes and the hours of operation have not been discussed yet, but several tea masters are already interested in using the facility.  The tea masters will likely invite their own guests, he said.
 
The tea room will have totami mats for guests to sit on the floor, walls built of rice paper and natural light, he said.
 
Fong said he and others in the Ethnic Studies Department visited the Urasenke Foundation and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to get ideas of how they envisioned the house and garden. 

He also said both those organizations only have tea houses, no gardens, no modern preparation facilities and the ability to project a tea ceremony through video, similar to cameras used in a cooking show that allows for different angles and close-up capabilities that Sac State plans to have. 

"It's probably one of the finest tea rooms in northern California if not the state," Fong said.

Gia Vang can be reached at news@statehornet.com

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools