The Tea Ceremony

Now located in the Oyamazaki Myoki-an at the foothills of Mt Tenno, the hut is representative of the type that Rikyu favoured. When Hideyoshi defeated Akechi Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki, he ordered Rikyu to make a teahut in celebration. This is the story, although concrete evidence is scant.
The hut is in any case of about the period. It has a low ceiling and is just two-mats in size, plus a hearth. It has a small antechamber and a low door. There are no pillars and the interior is open, though constricted. The walls are wattle and roughly finished. Light flows in gently from cleverly placed windows. It is the perfect example of the wabi teahut. It is said that the doorway is small to present violence inside: it is not big enough to admit someone wearing a sword.
The traditional teahut has 4.5 mats, which was already small, but the Tai-an is a scaling down of even this. It is RikyuÕs revolution.