Tea ceremony and tatami
Typical winter tearoom layout in a 4 1/2 mat tearoom, showing position of tatami, tokonoma, mizuya, hearth, guests and host.
Shoes or other such footwear are taboo on tatami. Unfresh socks (or tabi), as well as unwashed feet, are a breach of etiquette. The tea bowl and other items that should be perfectly clean may be set directly on the tatami, and so the tatami need to be maintained in a perfectly clean state. Inasmuch as chanoyu conventionally takes place in a traditional style of Japanese room, tatami are an integral part of it. The main areas of traditional style tea rooms and tea houses have tatami floors, and the scroll alcove (tokonoma or toko) in tea rooms often has a tatami floor as well. Tatami are used in various ways in tea ceremony. Their placement, for example, determines how a person walks through the tea room. When walking on tatami it is customary to shuffle, to avoid causing disturbance. Shuffling forces one to slow down, to maintain erect posture, and to walk quietly, and helps one to maintain balance as the combination of tabi and tatami makes for a slippery surface; it is also a function of wearing kimono, which restricts stride length. One must avoid walking on the joins between mats, one practical reason being that that would tend to damage the tatami. Therefore, chan (via Japanese tea ceremony - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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