Swallow's Rest
The Ennan Teahouse

The Ennan, or Swallow’s Rest, teahouse is modeled after one designed by 17th century tea master, Oribe. He designed and presented the original to Yabunouchi Kenchū, founder of the Yabunouchi School of tea around 1610. Although the original was destroyed by fire in 1788, a reproduction built in 1831 still stands in the garden of the Yabunouchi School headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.

The design of the teahouse is rooted in a style popularized by Japanese architect Rikyū called sōan, meaning grass hut.  Its simplicity expresses the ideal that the tea ceremony was an occasion to withdraw from material and worldly concerns. The nijiriguchi, or low entrance, requires all guests, no matter rank, to crawl inside where they became social equals. Oribe’s design incorporates may of Rikyū’s features, while also adding the graceful sweep of the roofline — an echo to the graceful wings of the swallow. 

The teahouse was originally constructed in 1988 for a three month exhibition entitled Japan, The Art of the Tea Ceremony at Washington’s National Gallery of Art. The teahouse was the centerpiece of the exhibition which detailed the early history of tea in Japan and the importance of the tea ceremony in Japanese culture. It was carefully crafted by Japanese artisans in the atrium of the gallery and surrounded by an extensive garden. The teahouse cost $700,000 to erect in Washington for the exhibition, an expense paid entirely by the Japanese newspaper, Ashai Shimbun. In 1989, a spokesperson for the newspaper stated that the teahouse is unique from other Japanese teahouses in America in its degree of authenticity. He noted that so accurately has the Kyoto original been recreated, that the sole difference between the two is age.

In 1989, over $400,000 in funds were raised by the Virginia Peninsula business community and the public at large to re-assemble the teahouse on the campus of Christopher Newport University (CNU) in Newport News, Virginia.  Newport News is sistered with the city of Neyagawa, Osaka, Japan and home to Canon Virginia, Inc. Re-construction of the teahouse began at CNU on June 7, 1989 and for just over a month, craftsman from Marutomi Komuten, a Japanese construction company, worked to rebuild the structure. 

In 2005, CNU determined that it needed the land on which the teahouse sat to build “critically needed facilities for academic use and student support”, and sought a new home for the teahouse. The City of Newport News accepted the structure and moved it - in one piece - to Newport News Park, the city’s 8,000 acre park and one of the largest municipal parks in the U.S.

On May 6, 2007 the structure was re-dedicated by Newport News Mayor Joe Frank in honor of the city's 25th Anniversary with Neyagawa in a Japanese garden, nestled atop a small hill and adjacent a running brook in Newport News Park. 

The public is free to visit the structure  during park hours. It is periodically opened for tours and tea ceremonies conducted by SCNN.  For more information contact 757.926.1348     

Learn more from this original 1989 NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/03/us/a-teahouse-links-japan-and-virginia.html

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A reproduction of the 17th Century Ennan Teahouse located in Kyoto, Japan designed by tea master Oribe. First exhibited in 1988 at the National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C. Relocated in 1989 to Christopher Newport University Newport News, Virginia.  Re-dedicated in Newport News Park May 6, 2007 in honor of 25 Years of Friendship between the Sister Cities of Neyagawa, Osaka, Japan and Newport News, Virginia, USA

“May you leave your material and worldly concerns behind as you enter this garden and reflect on the relationships that work to keep our world at peace.”

remarks by Kate Helwig, SCNN's Executive Director
upon the re-dedication of the Ennan Teahouse, May 6, 2007