• Sakata Sakujirō. Chaseki okoshiezu mokuroku (Folded-drawing Tea Houses). 90 paper architectural models, housed in two custom-made wooden boxes. Nara(?), ca. early twentieth century.

Curatorial note:

Very little is known about the history of these “pop-up” paper models of famous tea houses designed by the great tea masters of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Some scholars have suggested that architects made these sets of three-dimensional structures to share archetypes of building design with their clients. Others, noting the comprehensive details of elevation and decoration inscribed on each model, have speculated that they were originally made to transmit classical ideals of tea house construction to future generations of their family workshops. Whatever their origin, by the late nineteenth century these sets of three-dimensional models appear to have been made and sold by tea utensil dealers as collectibles for tea aficionados. This complete set has ninety folded tea houses in envelopes of thick paper, housed in two wooden boxes. Indexes of the contents are pasted on the underside of each lid. Today, very few complete collections like this one survive.

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Title:
  • 茶席起繪圖 / [坂田作次郎]
  • Chaseki okoshiezu / [Sakata Sakujirō]
Language:
  • Japanese
Call number:
  • NA8306.J22 C43 1900z
  • Electronic Resource
Extent:
  • 90 folded plates in 2 cases : all ill. ; 27 cm.
Format:
  • Book
Type:
  • Designs and plans
  • Drawings
Description:
  • Two wooden cases, with mounted labels and hand-calligraphed titles on exteriors, lists of contents mounted inside of wooden tops. Cases house 90 folding plates with elaborate pop-up and cut-out features creating measured three-dimensional deplictions of tea houses designed by famous figures in tea ceremony history.
  • Labels on lids identify the collection as the product of Sakata Sakujirō, a Meiji-Taishō era tea utensils dealer and publisher of the Kinki region.
Publisher:
  • [Nara?] : Sakata Sakujirō, [190-]
  • [奈良?] : 坂田作次郎, [190-]
Subject:
  • Chashitsu (Japanese tearooms)—Japan—Designs and plans
  • Building—Details—Drawings
  • Architectural models
Title sort:
  • Chaseki okoshiezu / [Sakata Sakujirō]
Created:
  • 1930-01-01T00:00:00Z
Date:
  • 1930
Location:
  • SAX NA8306.J22 C43 1900z
  • SAX Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 NA8306.J22 C43 1900z
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/8c97kv41r
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
Alternative:
  • Chaseki okoshi-ezu
Scopenote:
  • Photos of three assembled plates.
Contributor:
  • Sakata, Sakujirō.
  • 坂田作次郎.
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