Chado (Chanoyu II) Japanese Tea House

I'm back as promised with another Japanese Tea House. This one is great for those with Bon Voyage that would like a taste of the Far East without going on a vacation. It is made in the same style as my last one, however, requires far less custom content because BV has provided a good deal of it. For those of you who do not have BV installed, please see my first lot. It is residential:

Chanoyu - A Japanese Tea House

Chanoyu (or chado as the characters show in the picture below) means "the way of tea" in Japanese. The art of the tea ceremony is a Zen buddhist practice that is thought by many to bring together the all cultural aspects that are seen as distinctly Japanese. These aspects include the art of tea, the architecture of the tea house, the art of calligraphy, ikebana the art of flower arranging, and meditation to name a few. Traditionally, a zen buddhist tea house mixes elements of the old and the new in order to stress the unpredictability and temporality of life. Windows and walls are asymmetrical and do not line up in ways usually seen as "perfect" in architecture. This is to keep the eye from knowing exactly what will happen next.

Learn more about the Japanese Tea Ceremony



While this tea house is not exactly traditional, I have tried to keep as many of the traditions I could in a Sims context. There are some subtle Shinto aspects as well (the Maxis-provided V's on top are reminiscent of Ise Shrine . The main house is the tea house and the smaller house is the unisex restroom. There is a lake, a small shrine and a garden to rake. There is also a second story on the tea house, which is empty so I did not provide an image for it. There is accidentally a dresser inside the tea room, please change this to a dressing room so you can have your sims change into their kimonos before they start the tea ceremony. I used the BV tea table because it allows sims to sit on cushions on the floor, though it is not accurately the way the tea ceremony would be performed in the taoist/zen Buddhist tradition.



Lot Size: 4x3
Lot Price: ~60,000

Suggested Custom Content:
For those of you who want even more Japanese goodies, check out my other lot as it has quite a bit of custom content. The creators below are to be thanked for that.

Custom Content Included:
- http://suigetu.eco.to/ by suigetu
- http://suigetu.eco.to/ by suigetu
- Moss Walk by Skye
- Cokebuilder by CokeBuilder
- Takegaki by reica15
- Tsukubai (purification fountain) by reica15
- small upper wall by Sim People and Me
- Tokonoma by Sim People and Me
- wooden pillar (deco) by Sim People and Me
- antique Japanese cherry wood panels by Sim People and Me
- antique Japanese cherry wood panels by Sim People and Me

Additional Credits:
I would like to thank Sim People and Me for the amazing creations on http://suigetu.eco.to/.
I would also like to thank Mijutaro for his fabulous kimono's which inspired much of my Japanese neighborhood.
Lastly, I would like to thank Maxis/EA for actually creating some of my most wanted items of Japanese culture and for mostly naming them correctly.
Thank you to everyone who helped me make this in one way or another!

Terms of Use:
Have fun. Post stories here of interesting things that go on in your tea house if you so wish. I'd love to know. If you use this lot for a movie or anything else interesting, credit is not necessary but appreciated. Link here so that people can see where you got the lot from. If you like this lot, let me know. If not, let me know why.