The aesthetic focus of the room is the _tokonoma_, or picture recess, set into one of the plaster walls, with a raised dais for its floor and an artificial, lowered ceiling. The _tokonoma _has a small _shoji_- covered window at one side which illuminates a hanging scroll, and there is usually an incense burner (in recognition of its original monastic function) or a simple flower arrangement on its floor. Adjacent to the _tokonoma_ is the _chigai-dana_, a shelved storage area hidden by sliding panels, which may be used to store _kimonos_ or bedding rather than the writing implements of Zen monks as in the past. The _tokonoma _and _chigai-dana _are separated by a thin dividing wall whose outer edge is fronted by a single polished post, the _toko- bashira_, a natural tree trunk stripped of its bark to reveal its gnarled surface texture. The _toko-bashira _has the quality of polished driftwood, intended to bring a touch of raw nature to the otherwise austere and monastic ambience of the room. As the guest kneels on the cushions and sips green tea, the host may slide aside a rear _shoji _to reveal the roofless garden of the inner courtyard, his private abstraction of the natural landscape. Flowers are purposely absent, but in their place may be tiny shaped pines, a pond, and receding, rocky pathways. The mossy stones glisten with dew (or with water from a recent dousing by the host in preparation for his guests), and the air is fresh with the scent of greenery. Only upon careful inspection does the deception evaporate and the garden reveal itself to be a tiny plot surrounded by a bamboo and plaster fence; the natural world has been extracted and encapsulated into a single view, at once as authentic as the forest and as artfully detailed as a Flemish miniature. This view--a heritage of Zen _shoin _design--is vital to the aesthetic magic of the house, for it brings the works of man and nature together in a way that blurs their distinction. Exterior space is united with interior space just as Zen philosophy identifies the external world as an extension of man's inner life.