Japanese Tea Shops

[Space Samurai]

My tea sensei came back yesterday from Japan and brought me a gift of fukamushi sencha. It's not a fukamushi I've tried before; it's by Sankouen.

This reminded me of something that has been on my mind. I've noticed that Japanese tea shops end with "en." (Itoen, Fukujuen, Marukyu Koyamaen, and so forth).

What gives?

[chamekke]

My tea sensei came back yesterday from Japan and brought me a gift of fukamushi sencha. It's not a fukamushi I've tried before; it's by Sankouen.

This reminded me of something that has been on my mind. I've noticed that Japanese tea shops end with "en." (Itoen, Fukujuen, Marukyu Koyamaen, and so forth).

What gives?

The kanji for en is 園 (although you'll only see the kanji properly if you have installed the Japanese character set on your computer). It's usually translated as "garden".

But don't ask me what the first part of all those names means... The kanji for san means "three" and the kanji for kou looks to me just like the kanji for "incense", which also transliterates as kou. But "Three Incenses Garden" doesn't seem to make a huge amount of sense.

[Pentox]

My guess would be it's just the proper ending for a tea shop. For the same way that most stores end with -ya.

Just my guess though, i speak way too little Japanese to really know.