* 2 styles: 草案（そうあん）style tea room, and the 書院（しょいん）style
   * 利休 would use 赤楽 in the 2 mat room, and 黒楽 in the 4.5 room

===History===
   * First proper tea room with 4.5 mats was built during 足利（あしかが） / 室町（むろまち）period (1338-1573), in the 銀閣寺（きんかくじ） (CQ12).

===草案===
    * the 草案 style is not terribly new, the first reference we find in Nara period (~700 AD), in Empress Genshō's following poem:

//This chamber built with barked wood\\
Brought from the grove nearby\\
And thatched with obana strems\\
Shall stand a thousand years//

   * 1462 describes a tea room with a small door, decorated with Chinese objects and a Chinese painting.
   * In Okakura, he explains, however, how the tea room is made for the tea master, to his taste, and is not supposed to stand for eternity. 

   * More concretely, in Sakai of Jōō's time, the concept of a mountain hermitage in the city was already popular (see [[history#Development of 侘び茶 in the Urban Middle Ages (CQ56)|here]])
   * Transition from 書院 to 草案 style marked by the disappearing of the staggered shelves
   * Jōō built a famous 4.5 畳 tea room: 同仁斎（どうじんさい）(first one actually by his teacher)
   * 利休's [[taian|待庵]] obviously the most famous example.
   * As Rodrigues explains: These houses cost a lot of money; //this povery is really very rich and wealthy//.

   * In the first passage of the first book of the [[nanpouroku|南方録]], 利休 explains how true 茶の湯 can only be done in the 草（そう）-style room.

===Building One===
   * Pillars of 床 different from other pillars (Okakura)
   * Asymmetry as a guiding principle, so the guests can complete it in their heads.
   * It is important it is completely closed, so no interaction with the outside world is possible. This is the main difference between the hut and the normal Japanese room (CQ26).

===After 利休===
   * 織部（おりべ） then coined the 燕庵（えんなん）style: 3.75 畳, adding one mat for the attendants, and some connected rooms.

{{ ::ennan.jpg?direct&400 |}}

   * 遠州（えんしゅう）reintroduced 書院 feel, for example in 密庵（みつあん）
   * 有楽（うらく）created 如庵（じょあん）
→ Nobody continued 利休's style

===坪ノ内 (CQ81)===
   * Walled space in front of 躙口（にじり　ぐち）, which serves as a interim space between mundane outside world and tearoom. Later, the 路地（ろじ）would play this role