New Tatami Showroom

We are pleased too invite you to visit our tatami showroom in our gallery. The custom designed, six tatami size sukiya style room is complete with shoji panels, fusuma doors, tokonoma with tokobashira, chigai dana and a ro-buchi for winter tea ceremonies. The showroom is not only used to display our art and antiques, it is also be available for cha-no-yu classes. The room showcases the exquisite craftsmanship by Projex Pacific/ Aihama Contstruction, Inc. of Temple City, CA. If you have always wanted a tea house or a tea ceremony room in your home or a tatami room for contemplation and meditation, Projex Pacific can design and build the perfect one for you.

The custom design for the tea room required about six weeks to complete. Aihama's talented team of designers, project mangers, carpenters and subcontractors created a room of timeless beauty, appropriate with our antiques, while using new materials. The meticulous care and fine craftsmanship by Aihama's team of Japanese carpenters was encouraging to see in this day and age. They took the time to make it perfect. It is very difficult to have a construction site amid art and antiques, but Aihama's project manager did an excellent job, managing to complete the room with minimal intrusion on our business.

One element of the room that we'd like to highlight is the tokobashira , the alcove post that symbolically holds the design together. The tokobashira is an essential element of the tokonoma. Although its function is purely decorative, its style sets the tone of the room. In our room, a post of beautifully sectioned bamboo is stained and lacquered to give the feeling that it has been in place for decades.

The tokonoma provides the perfect display for scrolls. Its dark-stained platform base contrasts nicely with the brighter walls. It, too, adds to the feeling that this tokonoma might have once been in an old minka, farmhouse. Its platform is perfect to display okimono of various sizes, or ikebana flower arrangements.

The chigaidana, staggered shelves are also an essential element of this style. The shelves are made of beautifully grained ash and stained the same color as the platform.

The wall covering is made of washi, Japanese hand made paper. Its construction is reminiscent of the mud and straw walls of old farmhouses where the straw seen in the walls is part of the design and charm of the structure. Over time the washi of this room will age and the color will darken to a more cream color.

The fusuma, sliding doors on the left side of the room are designed with coverings decorated by sosho writing in katakana. The reference is to flowers, one of which is the sakura, cherry blossom which is incorporated in our logo. The hikite hand pulls have a bamboo motif in the center plate.

Partitioning the room from the outside world are four shoji doors, also made from ash and using sheets of fiberglass type shoji paper as a sturdier alternative to regular paper. The flooring consists of six tatami mats, in the 3 ft by 6 ft. size.

We can't thank Projex Pacific / Aihama Construction enough for the beautiful room they have created. When we are nostalgic to return to Japan we have only to take off our shoes, climb the steps to the room, feel the tatami under our feet and we are transported back to old Japan. If you have plans to build a tea house, tea room or just a tatami platform you should contact Projex Pacific / Aihama Construction at 626 287-6062 or contact them through their website www.aihama.com.

Aihama Construction has been in business since 1979 and does both commercial and residential structures as well as interior design.