of Zionism into the actualities of life. The size of the orthodox tearoom is four mats and a half, or ten feet square. But Rikyu shrank the size of the tearoom from the four and half mats down to two mats in some of his designs. This type of extremely small and rustic teahouse is known as a soan. Despite the central role Rikyu played in the development of soan tea, the design of only one of the extant soan teahouse can be even tentatively ascribed to his hand. That is the Taian. (fig.2) The Taian located in the town of Yamazaki, south of kyoto, the Taian is part of the Myokian temple. Though the provenance of the teahouse is unverified, it seems likely that Rikyu originally built it in his own house in Yamazaki and that it was later transferred to the Myokian. He probably prepared tea for Hideyoshi there, which gave rise to the belief that Hideyoshi had ordered Rikyu to build it in 1582 while he was enganed in battle nearby with Akechi Mitsuhide. The Taian consists of a two-mat tearoom next to a one-mat anteroom bordered with a wood-floor section. North of the anteroom is a one-mat space called the katte, where preparations are made for the ceremony. The screens that normally separate the rooms have been removed in the figure for clarity. In the tearoom proper the west mat has a hearth cut into one corner, where the water for the tea is boiled. The other mat to the east is for the guests. This extremely small size is visually mitigated somewhat by the decorative alcove area, and the anteroom can also be used when a larger number of guests are present. The design of the Taian soan has been worked out in great detail. Even the ceiling is of a complex construction. The sections directly in front of the decorative alcove and over the server'' mat are flat and consist of thin shingles reinforced beneath by light-colored bamboo. But the part above the guests'mat is inclined, and this again helps mitigate the feeling of constriction such a sma...
