At first glance a tea room looks like a small and weak building that you could blow over. However, I heard that in the earthquake of 1891 a tea house that had been built by the Horikawa River in Nagoya slid into the river, floating like a boat. The tea room itself remained in one piece. In the Edo period the 'jishin no ma' (special buildings that were used as shelters in the event of earthquakes) in the residences of samurai were constructed like sukiya tea houses.
Tea rooms look light with their narrow pillars, but in fact the skill and effort of the craftsmen has been poured into them in places that are not visible.
Because the pillars are slender, the walls must be thin. So vertical and horizontal lengths of wood called nuki are plaited inside the wall. The horizontal nuki penetrate the pillars, making the thin walls stronger. Then bamboo laths are finely woven together between them. This strong framework is hidden inside the wall. It is no exaggeration to say that the important craft work used in making a tea room is inside its walls.
This kind of technique that developed in the tea room, was applied to create the lightness sought in the building of sukiya (wabi tea rooms) and all kinds of original ideas and designs were developed by the craftsmen.