Sunkaraku in 3D
First preserved by the Philadelphia Museum of Art through acquisition in 1928, the Japanese Ceremonial Teahouse known as Sunkaraku, has now been preserved in 3D by point3D using a DotProduct DPI-8 Imager. The ceremonial teahouse was built in about 1917 by the architect Ögi Rodö, the grandmaster of Sukiya architecture, and is typical of traditional Japanese teahouses. This particular teahouse takes its name from the wooden signboard under the eaves of the tearoom itself, which reads Sunkaraku (sunkaraku or "fleeting joys"). The tea ceremony, for which the structure and garden is built, is performed today as it has been for centuries, as a ritual of serving and drinking.
The teahouse installation includes two separate but connected structures, the waiting room and the tearoom, placed in a garden that was planned by one of Japan's foremost contemporary garden designers, Matsunosuke Tatsui. The overall size of the area, the garden setting and the historic and cultural sensitivity of Sunkaraku presented a challenge to capture. Further complicating the capture were the students of Asian arts and visitors to the museum wandering through the gallery space. This was a challenge the DPI-8 Imager and point3D team were able to easily handle. Integration of the scan sets was made possible through the amazing CloudCompare point cloud visualization and editing software. The images shown are all from CloudCompare.