In creating his tearoom Taian, Sen no Rikyu employed coarse walls of earth with plentiful bits of fiber for plastering mixed in. The walls were antithetical in mood to the rigid formality of the shoin (study) style of architecture, dominant at that time. The corners of the walls, instead of forming right angles as might be expected, were rounded and exuded a supple, organic air, like a living thing. I felt that I wanted this tearoom to be soft and supple, in a similar way, for in my mind the