間 · Ma — the interval
What we serve is the interval.
Seion-an means hermitage of quiet sound — a contradiction we keep on purpose. In a room this still, the kettle becomes an event. A lacquer lid meeting its bowl is a sentence. The ladle, returned to the kama, is a closing.
There are twelve seats. There will not be more. Twelve is the number at which a room holds one silence instead of several conversations — and at which the host can watch every cup without appearing to watch.
We do not play music. The room has weather instead — rain on the eaves, charcoal settling, the suikinkutsu beneath the garden basin counting drops. Most of what you will notice here is what has been left out. That, too, was arranged.
茶 · The pairing
One menu. Five acts. Twenty-four seasons.
Ninety minutes, five servings, one price. The menu does not change four times a year — it changes twenty-four, with the old solar terms. Choose a term below; the house follows.
席 · The room
Eight mats, one board, a hundred autumns.
The room is an eight-mat survivor of a Meiji-era weaver's house. The counter is a single board of Kitayama cedar, older than the room, planed but never lacquered — it keeps the ring of every year it stood. Guests sit at the board, or at the low table by the garden window, where the light does most of the talking.
In the floor, a ro — the sunken hearth — opens in November and closes in May. The tokonoma holds one object at a time: a flower before noon, a scroll after. The garden is nine stones and moss. It has never needed more.
- 席 twelve seats, three kinds of light
- 炉 hearth open November – May
- 床 one object in the alcove at a time
- 庭 nine stones, moss, one basin
予約 · Reserve
We take reservations as letters.
Write us one below — a line at a time, as letters are written. We read them each evening after the last seating, and reply before the morning kettle.
Your letter is folded. We read reservations each evening after the last seating, and reply before the morning kettle. — 静音庵
案内 · Visiting
Three minutes east of the canal, behind the persimmon tree.
- Where
- 23-4 Ichijōji Kitano-chō, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto. No sign; look for the cedar door left ajar.
- When
- Two seatings daily, 11:00 and 15:00. Closed Tuesdays, and for three days at each equinox.
- How much
- ¥6,600 per seat, everything included. We cannot split bills; letters cannot be split either.
- Kindly
- No photographs after the first pour. No fragrance. Phones asleep. Children who enjoy sitting still are very welcome.
- Letters
- letters@seion-an.jp · 075-701-0012, answered between seatings.