Traditional Japanese tea house opens

Traditional Japanese tea house opens for Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival

A traditional Japanese tea house and garden, designed and constructed in Japan, and then painstakingly rebuilt in New Plymouth will be one most unique visitor experiences in this year’s Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival.

Virtually every piece of material used to build the tea house, and even the pebbles and stones in the surrounding garden, were shipped from Japan in eight containers. The tea house and garden was then rebuilt and completed in the early months of 2009 by a team of 20 Japanese craftsmen including builders, roof tillers, painters, sheet metal workers, gardeners—even a chef!

Owner Mr. Masashi Iwata comes from New Plymouth’s Japanese sister city Mishima, and has been a member of the Mishima International Relationship Association for nearly twenty years.

With the tea house opening for the Festival for the first time, Mr. Iwata feels a dream that he has held for many years has finally come true.

“I thought a good way to have friendship between the two cities was to have a tea house, which represents Japanese culture, in New Plymouth,” explains Mr. Iwata.

“I built the tea house to make the traditional and modern Japanese life-style known to New Zealand people. If the visitors to the Tea House feel closer to the people and culture of Japan, I feel quite happy.”

The tea house will be open during the two weekends of the 10-day Festival running from October 30 to November 9. The garden surrounding the tea house features the arrangements of many stones and plants. The front part of the garden is called “Roji” and has a path of many steppingstones leading to the small, crawl-in entrance which traditionally prevented samurai from bringing in their weapons.

Each steppingstone, which are from the Kamo river in Kyoto, has its own part and meaning and the view of Roji must be quiet and simple, explains Mr. Iwata.

“There we can see only the plants which don't bloom. It is not until after entering the tea house does the guest find the beauty of a plain wild flower in the bamboo vase,” says Mr. Iwata.

One big stone which is used as a water basin for guests to rinse their hands and mouth, was also brought from Kurama in Kyoto

“Fortunately, in New Zealand, we could find most of the garden plants which are similar, or the same ones, used in Japanese gardens. But we were allowed to bring in special Japanese bamboo for the fences,” says Mr. Iwata.

Meanwhile, the compact and authentic tea house was designed by two renowned Japanese architects—Mr. Kenji Hakamada, who specializes in earthquake proof designs—and Mr. Takashi Tsuchiya, who specializes in Tea House designing.

One special feature is a sliding window opening out from the main tea house room to reveal framed view of Mt. Taranaki which resembles the view the city of Mishima has of Japan’s Mt. Fuji and the shared symmetry of the two mountains.

“The Tea House is traditionally designed, which I'm proud of,” says Mr. Iwata.

“Especially the small room called Koma, which has small entrance called Nijiriguti, is truly designed traditionally. All the wooden materials of Koma were bought from a wood company in Kyoto, which specializes in traditional tea-house materials.”

“The builders are very experienced in building the Japanese traditional houses including Japanese tea houses—and so are the gardeners. Several years ago they built a castle gate with a Japanese garden in a city in the United States.”

For the festival, Mr. Iwata will fly out from Japan with his daughter, Machiko, and tea ceremony master, Mr.Takei.

ENDS

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