Born over six centuries ago during the Muromachi period, the Japanese teahouse embodies an architecture of great refinement, where each structural element contributes to a unique spatial and sensory experience.
This workshop offers an immersion in this heritage through a central focus: the mastery of traditional Japanese joinery techniques, passed down directly by a master Japanese carpenter.
Guided by architect Masayuki Inaidae and Akiyoshi Fukushima, both carpenters specializing in Japanese woodworking, participants discover a demanding approach to woodworking, based on precision, structural logic, and the quality of the craftsmanship.
They learn to design, and even build, a teahouse frame without nails, screws, or glue, relying solely on wood-to-wood joinery (tsugite/shiguchi), the true keys to the elasticity and durability of Japanese structures. This direct transmission emphasizes the rigor of the drawing (sumitsuke), the understanding of structural forces, and the millimeter-precise assembly. It also allows for the learning of traditional techniques and the mastery of hand tools, at the heart of Japanese craftsmanship. Beyond technical acquisition, the training also introduces the fundamental principles of Sukiya architecture.
Upon completion of the training, the trainee will be able to:
The training program is structured around a strong practical component. Trainees are introduced to layout (Sumitsuke), progressive woodworking techniques, and the precise handling of traditional tools such as chisels and hand saws, before tackling the Japanese joinery essential for constructing a Sukiya frame.
Learning is achieved through experimentation: fitting pieces together, making successive adjustments, and refining with millimeter precision. Gradually, the pieces take shape and come together to form a self-supporting structure. Once completed, this structure is disassembled and reconfigured into modules, ready to be transported and reassembled elsewhere.
This workshop is based on an immersive and hands-on experience, centered on the complete construction of a teahouse frame.
Each assembly becomes an exercise in precision and structural understanding. Learning is achieved through experimentation: fitting pieces together, making successive adjustments, and refining with millimeter precision. Gradually, the pieces take shape and assemble to become a self-supporting structure. Once completed, it is disassembled and reconfigured into modules, ready to be transported and reassembled elsewhere. Beyond the technical aspects, the program offers a glimpse into the philosophy of the teahouse: the creation of duma (intentional space), the reduction to the bare essentials, and that unique Japanese aesthetic of "unfinished beauty," where imperfection becomes a value. These principles guide the participants throughout the process, enriching both their actions and their perspective.
The wood used is a standard local wood (France). Certain advanced skills, such as the precise selection of species or in-depth wood analysis, are not covered in this program.
Morning and Afternoon
Morning and Afternoon
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Morning and afternoon
The Architect of Spaces Where the World Breathes
Born in Osaka in 1976 and now based in Kyoto, Masayuki Inaida was not destined to become one of the most singular artisans of sukiya architecture. A graduate of Doshisha University, he began his career in the precision machinery industry, a world of millimeter-perfect precision. But very quickly, the call of wood, of ancestral craftsmanship, and of an aesthetic in harmony with nature became too strong. He left engineering to cross the threshold into a quieter world: that of traditional Japanese construction.
In 2005, he joined Yamanaka Komuten, the company in charge of the buildings at Daitoku-ji, Kyoto's iconic Zen temple. There, amidst centuries-old pillars and tea pavilions, he honed his understanding of wabi-sabi, of emptiness, of the beauty of the unfinished. House after house, in Japan and abroad, he discovered that building is not simply about erecting a structure, but about cultivating a state of mind: that of attentive presence to the world.
Ten years later, driven by the desire to freely share the essence of the tea room, he designed Kian, a bamboo tea house structure, transportable and self-assembled by one person. A bold move: to transform all of nature into a tea pavilion. Forests, rivers, coastlines, and even cities became his playground. Kian traveled from France to the United Kingdom, from the United States to the Japanese mountains, creating suspended moments where tea became a universal language.
In recent years, Masayuki Inaida has taken this fusion of ritual and landscape even further by organizing a tea ceremony at the summit of Mount Fuji, a symbolic experience of the intimate connection he seeks to rekindle between humanity and nature.
In 2022, in the midst of a global pandemic, he built Rokkaku-an, a tea house in Paris's 1st arrondissement. The space became a refuge, a place for emotional connection in a time marked by distance.
Three years later, he oversaw the renovation of a sushi restaurant in Montmartre, where he installed a counter made of 350-year-old Yoshino hinoki wood. Designed, exported, and assembled under his supervision, this ancient wood embodies the history of Japanese craftsmanship that he wishes to make visible to the world.
His work has been widely featured in the Japanese and international press.
Today, Masayuki Inaida continues to travel between Japan and Europe, carrying with him a vision: to create spaces and experiences that allow everyone to rediscover an essential gesture—that of being present, to oneself, to others, to nature.
The Carpenter Who Listens to the Silence of Wood
Born in 1983 in Kyoto, where he still lives and works, Akiyoshi Fukushima gravitated toward sukiya architecture from a very young age. At eighteen, he chose this demanding path, captivated by the simplicity of teahouses and by an aesthetic where beauty is expressed more through restraint than ostentation.
He trained with Taniguchi Komuten, under the tutelage of the master Taniguchi, heir to Sotoji Nakamura, an emblematic figure of sukiya carpentry during the Shōwa era. For thirteen years, Fukushima acquired far more than just technical skills: he absorbed a philosophy of craftsmanship, founded on absolute respect for materials, precision as a discipline, and the idea that the essential often lies in what is unseen.
Following this apprenticeship, he established his own practice. He then worked with several major Siemoto lineages of the tea ceremony, participating in the construction, restoration, and relocation of teahouses throughout Japan. Remaining faithful to hand tools and traditional joinery techniques, he seeks above all to reveal the presence of wood, its texture, its aging, and the temporal dimension that makes natural materials unique.
For Akiyoshi Fukushima, building is not simply about assembling a structure. His work is part of a larger project: to perpetuate a cultural spirit and design spaces where one can return to oneself. The teahouse, he explains, is a place that engages in a silent dialogue with those who enter it. Today, he continues this mission with consistency and humility: to preserve a heritage, to transmit knowledge, and to keep the architecture of tea houses alive as a resolutely contemporary practice, not a fixed heritage, but a way of looking ahead to the future.
Training 100% financeable by AFDAS, or partially covered by other operators such as FAFCEA, AGEFICE, FIFPL, OPCO EP etc.
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