Figure 6 Japanese tea garden, with water laver (tsukubai) for guests to ritually cleanse their hands and mouth, Matsuoke, Aichi (Keane, 2004: 68). The tea garden itself is called a which traditionally means a path or alleyway. In fact, by roji definition the is not really a garden but more a passage or entrance to the tea house. The roji walk through this corridor is meant to compress the sensation of travelling from a town to a hermit’s hut (dewy path). It symbolises the actual journeys made by priests as they scrambled across streams and mountains to reach their hermitages (fig 6). For merchant and samurai classes in the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was a way of bringing the tranquillity of the mountain place within the bustle of city life (Chesshire, 2005: 122). Apart from a sense of calmness, the passage also involves a series of thresholds through which each guest is encouraged to release worldly concerns and increasingly enter a state of mind’. The ‘tea initial threshold is the outer gate that separates the from the profane external world. The roji last guest closes and locks the gate. In Keane’s words, they are now longer of the ‘no ordinary world’ (2002: 57). Guests must then sit, wait and reflect on their surroundings before being signalled by their host to enter the inner through the middle gate which is roji more a symbolic marker than a physical barrier. Within this inner space, guests pass through two thresholds of purification. First they use a water basin, to rinse their hands and tsukubai, mouth (Hibi:, 1989: 266). is derived from the verb crouch’ and guests must bow Tsukubai ‘to
Figure 6 Japanese tea garden, with water laver (tsukubai) for guests to ritually cleanse their hands and mouth, Matsuoke, Aichi (Keane, 2004: 68). The tea garden itself is called a roji which traditionally means a path or alleyway. In fact, by definition the roji is not really a garden but more a passage or entrance to the tea house. The walk through this corridor is meant to compress the sensation of travelling from a town to a hermit’s hut (dewy path). It symbolises the actual journeys made by priests as they scrambled across streams and mountains to reach their hermitages (fig 6). For merchant and samurai classes in the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was a way of bringing the tranquillity of the mountain place within the bustle of city life (Chesshire, 2005: 122). Apart from a sense of calmness, the passage also involves a series of thresholds through which each guest is encouraged to release worldly concerns and increasingly enter a ‘tea state of mind’. The initial threshold is the outer gate that separates the roji from the profane external world. The last guest closes and locks the gate. In Keane’s words, they are now ‘no longer of the ordinary world’ (2002: 57). Guests must then sit, wait and reflect on their surroundings before being signalled by their host to enter the inner roji through the middle gate which is more a symbolic marker than a physical barrier. Within this inner space, guests pass through two thresholds of purification. First they use a tsukubai, water basin, to rinse their hands and mouth (Hibi:, 1989: 266). Tsukubai is derived from the verb ‘to crouch’ and guests must bow