Shusui-tei, Tea ceremony venue in Kamigyō-ku, Japan
Shusui-tei is a tea house in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan, set beside a pond with carp and turtles and surrounded by maple and crape myrtle trees. The building has a ground-floor room with a wide veranda and a two-story section containing a single room on the upper floor.
Shusui-tei was built around 200 years ago as part of the former Kujo family estate, one of the noble families that lived near the Imperial Palace grounds. The property later passed into city ownership and is now open to the public.
Shusui-tei displays traditional sukiya architecture with paper sliding doors and a wide veranda where a tsukubai basin is used for ritual hand washing before the tea ceremony. These elements are still visible and experienced by visitors today.
Shusui-tei is open on Fridays and Saturdays, so it is worth checking in advance whether any special conditions apply on a given day. Sturdy footwear is advisable for walking the garden paths around the pond.
Unlike most tea rooms in Kyoto, which are confined to a single floor, Shusui-tei has a room on its upper floor that looks directly over the pond. This kind of view from above is rare among the historic tea houses of the city.
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