Photo/Illutration The golden tearoom recreated in the Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum in Karatsu. Items used for tea ceremony are also covered in gold leaf. Photo taken March 26 (Tetsuya Kumagai)

KARATSU, Saga Prefecture--A replica of a golden tearoom that renowned warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi used to flaunt his power more than four centuries ago is now available for ordinary folk to sample the joys of traditional tea ceremony.

Completed at a cost of 36 million yen ($268,000), it offers visitors a rare glimpse of late 16th century Momoyama Period culture. 

For a fee, the Saga Prefectural Nagoya Castle Museum allows visitors to sip matcha green tea inside the space, which boasts a red floor and is just three “tatami” mats in size, or 4.9 square meters.

The replica was created based on historical records kept by the Karatsu-based museum. The project took about six months until March 2022.

According to the museum, Hideyoshi (1537-1598) first used the room for tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto in 1586, where he made and served tea to Emperor Ogimachi.

Hideyoshi hosted the event to express gratitude for his inauguration as “kanpaku,” a title given to an individual who serves as chief adviser to the emperor.

The assembly-type tearoom was taken to Nagoya Castle that had been built in the city of Karatsu as a base for Hideyoshi’s invasion of the Korean Peninsula. It was used four times for tea ceremony with feudal lords and to welcome foreign envoys, records show.

While Hideyoshi was reputed to have flamboyant tastes, the golden tearoom was also a way for him to enhance his own authority in politics and diplomacy.

It is said the tearoom was later brought back to Osaka when Hideyoshi returned there and was destroyed by fire during the Summer Siege of Osaka Castle in 1615.

Officials said about 16,500 sheets of gold leaf were used for the replica. Following historical accounts, craftsmen used silk fabric in place of “shoji” screen paper and woolen fabric to cover the tatami mats. Both fabrics are bright red.

After closing the shoji sliding door and dimming the lights, the tearoom is enveloped in a “hazy glow” of gold and red.

“I feel that people in those days were more sensitive to light, shadow and color than people nowadays,” said museum curator Tetsuya Hisano.

“Only a limited number of people, such as Hideyoshi, the emperor, foreign envoys and feudal lords, spent time in this space.” 

The replica is an opportunity for visitors to experience what those people felt long ago, Hisano added.

The museum offers programs in which visitors can listen to a curator’s commentary and drink matcha from Karatsu ware in the golden room.

CLOSE TO NATURE

Just a five-minute walk from the museum is another tearoom for those who want to enjoy matcha while viewing a Japanese traditional garden that incorporates the scenery of the castle ruins.

The tearoom “Kaigetsu” is located on a hill on the southwest side of the Nagoya Castle ruins.

Visitors can casually enjoy tea and Japanese traditional confection without worrying about the strict rules of tea ceremony.

After a “cuppa,” they can relax by lying down on tatami mats or sit on the veranda while viewing the garden.

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