Koma covers tea rooms of four and a half mats or smaller, including two-mat and three-mat rooms and the daime configuration. With host and guests close enough that their knees nearly meet, the interior dimension of wabi tea comes through most strongly. A concentrated intimacy arises that a larger room cannot produce, and being that close to one another is itself the point.
Origins
Reduction accelerated through Murata Juko and Takeno Joo and reached its limit when Rikyu built the two-mat Taian. Choosing a space inconveniently small by any ordinary architectural standard, and choosing it deliberately for tea, is the clearest statement of what wabi practice was doing.
In practice
Movements have to be smaller and more precise than in a large room, and the number of guests is correspondingly limited. Taian, attributed to Rikyu, is designated a National Treasure and is the reference example.
Sources
- 小間（デジタル大辞泉 / 精選版 日本国語大辞典） / コトバンク
Supports: 小間が「茶道で、四畳半以下の狭い茶室」を指すこと
About this article
Edited by the operator of Chaen (a one-person operation) / Last updated:
Tea ceremony descriptions can vary by school and source. Where interpretations differ, this glossary avoids definitive claims and focuses on broadly shared understandings. If you notice an error, please let us know viaContact. To learn about our organization, seeAbout Chaen.
Term info
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Related terms
- Chado (The Way of Tea)chado
The Japanese practice of preparing and serving powdered green tea, treated as a lifelong discipline rather than a beverage ritual.
- Wabiwabi
Finding sufficiency of mind within insufficiency and plainness; one of the root concepts of tea practice.
- Ichigo ichie (one time, one meeting)ichigo ichie
The principle that every gathering is unrepeatable, and should therefore be treated as if it will never occur again.
- Yojohan (four-and-a-half-mat room)yojohan
The reference size for a tea room — four mats and a half — sitting on the boundary between shoin and thatched styles.
- Hiroma (large room)hiroma
Tea spaces larger than four and a half mats, suited to open gatherings and shoin-style formality.