Impression of a Tea-room

 

Hiroyuki Tajima

Impression of a Tea-room, 1968

Woodblock print

23-1/8" x 17-7/8"

Hiroyuki Tajima was a Japanese printmaker of the sosaku hanga school. Sosaku hanga was an art movement in Japan during the early 20th century, which emphasized the idea of self-drawn, self-carved, and self-printed art, and that the artists create their works out of their desire for self-expression. He created his first print in 1946, and he joined the Bijutsu Bunka Kyokai, a group of abstract and surrealist artists. Tajima is best known for his abstract prints with broad areas of rich dense color.

This print is titled the "Impression of a Tea-room." Before I go on with my interpretation of this image, I want to give a little background on significant features of the tea house/ceremony. The Japanese tea ceremony, also referred to as Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity of involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha (green tea). In a tea gathering called chakai, the tea ceremony includes a simple course of tea and a light snack. The other kind, called chaji, is a formal gathering that includes a full-course meal that lasts about four hours. Although having tea ceremonies in a tatami-floored room is ideal, they can also take place outdoors in a picnic-styled setting. Rooms that are built for the purpose of tea ceremonies have low ceiling, an alcove for hanging scrolls and placing decorative objects, and several entrances for host and guests. The tea room is usually surrounded by roji, the garden path of the tea room.

In this image, a lot of geometric shapes are incorporated into the picture. Shapes like squares, circles, rectangles and ellipses are utilized to bring out the abstract feeling. In the "background," the space filled with green seems to represent roji, the garden that surrounds the tea room. Within the garden, there are stepping stones that are set up in a curved orientation, leading the way to the entrance of the tea room. In Japanese tradition, roji signifies the first stage of meditation where the guests break connection with the outside world to fully enjoy the ceremony in the tea room. In "front" of the garden, the three black rectangular-shaped figures represent bamboo trees, which were commonly present in the surroundings of the Japanese tea room, and were utilized as containers for the flowers in the ceremony itself. The black, brown and green colors in this image represent how nature is incorporated into the tea ceremony. It is also interesting to see that this image can represent both the outside of the tea room or the inside with a window showing roji. This abstract, yet representational image is organic, and it symbolizes different parts of the tea room. This print especially emphasizes the aspects of nature that is incorporated in the tea ceremony tradition, and the perception that the guests would have at a performance of ritual tea.