Tea House moving to Newport News Park
News Release - September 8, 2005
contact:
Karen L. Gill
karen.gill@cnu.edu
(757) 594-8428
(NEWPORT NEWS, VA) — The Japanese Tea House in Virginia is getting a new home. The tea house, which has resided on the campus of Christopher Newport University since 1989, will be moved this fall to the Peace Garden at Newport News Park.
Bill Brauer, executive vice president of the university, said CNU has been working for several years to find a new home for the tea house, which is a reproduction of the Ennan Tea House, a landmark in Kyoto, Japan.
“It really is a work of art -- a superb example of Japanese artistry and joinery,” said Brauer. "We wanted to relocate the house to a site where it could be better maintained and where more people would be able to see it. We talked to people literally all over the world, and I am delighted that we could keep it in Newport News."
The tea house will be lifted from its present location and placed on a trailer for towing to the park by Ace House Movers, a contractor working for Newport News Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said Michael Nealer, administrator of parks.
“The hope is to cause as little disturbance to the house as can be done in the move,” Nealer said.
It will be placed in a protected area near its final site while it is repaired and a foundation is built, Nealer said. He said the park plans to make the tea house available for public viewing eventually.
The tea house was constructed in 1987 for the exhibit, “Japan: The Shaping of the Daimyo Culture, 1185-1686” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Measuring 19 feet long, 13 feet wide and 17 feet high, it is made of cypress, oak and a variety of cedar found only in Kiayama, near Kyoto. It is held together with doweling, tongue and groove fittings and a few handmade nails.
After the exhibit closed, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and the Nomura Securities company presented the tea house to the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Money was raised to take the tea house apart and ship it to CNU, where specially skilled craftsmen from Japan reassembled it at its site. It was dedicated as The Japanese Tea House in Virginia on Sept. 20, 1989, with a shortened tea ceremony conducted by the Grandmaster of the Yabunouchi School of Tea in Kyoto.
Christopher Newport University is a four-year public university in Newport News, Virginia. CNU enrolls 4,800 students in programs through its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Business and offers great teaching, small classes and an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor. Visit us at www.cnu.edu.