In terms of seeking new perspectives for the development of modern architecture, Horiguchi Sutemi is known for focusing on traditional Japanese Sukiya-style buildings and for his thorough research on the tea room that gave rise to this style. At the root of his wide-ranging tea room research is the question of asymmetric construction methods. The importance of asymmetry in his entire architectural philosophy has been pointed out by many previous studies; however, because the term asymmetry is also a slogan in modern architectural thought in general, little has been discussed concerning the real facts of the case. Considering that Horiguchi describes the whole modeling concept of the tea ceremony in terms of asymmetry—not limited to the tea room itself but encompassing the tea garden, set of tea ceremony instruments, and philosophy of the ceremony—it can be assumed that his idea is probably contained therein. Therefore, in this manuscript, we intend to interpret his statements concerning the “center post,” (a topic of particular interest with regard to asymmetry) and clarify how he understood the meaning of this post.
In a tea room, the hearth, known as the ro, is the place where water is boiled and is the fundamental element of the tea ceremony, whereby a master prepares tea to be consumed by guests. On the other hand, the alcove, known as the tokonoma, is the place where decorations showing the purpose of the tea ceremony and the intention of the owner are displayed, and this tokonoma is located in the upper stage of the tea room. According to Horiguchi, the center post is supposed to establish “balance” between these two important elements of the tea room, i.e., the ro and the tokonoma.
Taian and Joan are the types of tea rooms that particularly attracted Horiguchi's attention, and he identified the “balance” by considering the equilibrium between the aesthetic arrangement of the decorative objects in the tokonoma and the functional beauty of the utensils used in the ro on the other side of the room. In addition, the tokonoma, which is a static place, and the ro, which is the center of a dynamic space, are not separate entities and constitute an integrated system.
Horiguchi strives to identify the characteristics of the tokonoma and the center post as the establishment background of this “balancing.” Both serve to “cut off halfway and connect halfway,” but they reflect exactly the opposite because the main purpose of the tokonoma is separation whereas that of the center post is connection. In particular, the center post, which plays the distancing role in relation to the tokonoma, is considered to play an integrating role in harmony not only for the tea room but also for the tea ceremony itself. He considered these characteristics of the center post as clearly expressing asymmetry.
