Shoin Tea House
Shoin contains a replica of the tea room from a unique tea house called Kan’unken (“the tea house floating in the clouds”) that once stood in Takimotobo Temple on Mt. Otokoyama. The use of tall posts supporting the original tea house on the mountainside made it seem to be floating in midair. The tea room and drawing room offered a panorama of Yawata and Kyoto beyond.
It is said that the daimyo Kobori Enshu (1579–1647), a famed tea master and landscape architect, designed Kan’unken for his friend Shokado Shojo (1584–1639), then the chief abbot of Takimotobo. The tea house was lost in a fire in 1773, but historic building plans served as the basis for this reconstruction.