The Vitality and Resilienceof Inherited Japanese Houses－100 Years of Shimizu-gumi Houses－

Preface
Since its foundation in 1804, residential architecture had been one of the
primary business focuses for Shimizu-gumi, the present Shimizu Corporation.
Many books have been published to showcase its works, such as Sekkei
zushū, jūtaku no maki, ji 1907 nen shi 1923 nen (Drawing collection: house,from 1907 to 1923) and Sekkei zushū, shitsunai narabini kagu dentō no maki,
ji 1909 nen shi 1913 nen (Drawing collection: interior, furniture and lighting,from 1909 to 1913). These books feature painted drawings of large houses,
which could be considered mansions in the Western sense, designed andbuilt by Shimizu-gumi, and include plans, elevations, development plans, andillustrations of furniture. The books enable the reader to visualize many
aspects of mansions in the Meiji era (1868-1912) and Taisho era (1912-1926,)
and to understand how these mansions were significant as elements ofurban culture. Additionally, an academic work based on these earlier texts
was published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Housing
Research Foundation JUSOKEN: Meiji/Taisho no teitaku, Shimizu-gumi
sakusei saishiki-zu no sekai (Mansions in Meiji and Taisho, the world ofcolored drawings created by Shimizu-gumi, Kashiwashobo, 2009, currently
unavailable). This book is the product of joint research by “Shimizu Kensetsu
Teitaku Shiryō Kenkyūkai” (Shimizu Corporation Mansion Document Study
Group, 2004 to 2009) in the “Jūtaku Shiryō Iinkai” (Committee for historicalmaterials about houses) of Jusoken. For the next phase of study, surveys andresearch on Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog, 1stvolume: 1935, 2nd volume: 1939) should be conducted.
Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, hereafter referred to as the Catalog, includes 367
houses built by Shimizu-gumi between 1906 and 1938. In a preliminary
survey, Jusoken discovered fifty-eight of these houses still exist. It was
surprising that so many of these houses, most of them wooden, havesurvived for almost 100 years.
As a result of Jusoken’s initial findings, “Shimizu-gumi Jūtaku Kenchiku
Zushū Genzon Jūtaku Chōsa Kenkyū Iinkai” (The Committee to Survey andStudy Existing Houses in Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū), hereafterreferred to as the Committee, was established in April of 2017. Members of
the Committee began by visiting the existing houses, surveying each building,and interviewing people connected to each residence. The Committee ischaired by Jun Hatano, professor emeritus of Nippon Institute of Technology.
Committee members are as follows: Seizō Uchida, professor of Kanagawa
University; Asae Ozawa, professor of Tokai University; Setsuko Nakajima,
professor of Kyoto University; Yoshiko Mizunuma, professor (currently,
professor emeritus) of Kanto Gakuin University; Zentarō Yagasaki, associate1professor of Kyoto Institute of Technology (currently, professor of Osaka
Electro-Communication University); Akira Yasuno, professor of Nippon
Institute of Technology; Toshiaki Koguro, former staff member of Jusoken;
and Takako Hatada, Shimizu Corporation. The Committee was to precisely
record the current condition of each surviving house and to evaluate its
historical and cultural value. Their greater objective was to determine “whyeach house remained and how it was preserved”, including documenting
timelines of changes in ownership and any processes of renovation.
Japanese houses tend to have a shorter lifespan than those constructedin stone-building cultures, such as some of those found in Europe. To achievea sustainable society under the current environmental challenges, it isimportant to respect historical architecture and townscape. Ideally, both may
be preserved and entrusted to future generations in an improved state.
Unfortunately, there are many complex reasons why the inheritance ofhouses is often challenging and sometimes impossible. Society tends toprioritize economic efficiency and dense land use. Local environments andfamily structures have changed. The present tax system makes it difficult toinherit a large home and its plot. Some houses face deterioration of thestructure and fixtures from neglect or the elements, while maintenance costs
for buildings and gardens are prohibitively high. Moreover, there is a
shortage of skilled traditional craftspeople.
The quality of these resilient remaining houses truly impressed
Committee members during their site visits. Quality is a special characteristicthat can be defined as “vitality” in the categories of design, construction, andmaintenance. These houses have prevailed over many challenges as a resultof the imagination of architects, the passion and craftsmanship of builders,the care and efforts of residents, the attachments of their descendants, andthe fortuitous interactions among all parties.
This book is entitled “The Vitality and Resilience of Inherited JapaneseHouses – 100 Years of Shimizu-gumi Houses” because the members of theCommittee experienced first hand the vitality and resilience of the houses
that have been carefully maintained for future inheritance. Their researchraises some crucial questions. How can we entrust high quality, vital houses
to the next generation? What is the key to creating a sustainable society?
The circumstances of each individual house demand a different answer.
This book is published as a part of the 70th anniversary of Jusoken.
Housing Research Foundation JUSOKEN
April 20202

List of existing houses from Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku kenchiku zushū

Busan (South Korea) – 58

Niigata – 1 2 3
Kyoto – 47 48 49 50
Hyogo – 51 52 53 54

Ishikawa – 4
Tochigi – 5 6 7 8

Shimane – 55
Tokyo – 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22

Fukuoka – 57

Kanagawa – 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33
Shizuoka – 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
Aichi – 44
Kagawa – 56

Mie – 45 46【Legend】
1: Surveyed existing house (n=45)
1: Unsurveyed existing house (n=13)【Note】The houses on this list exist were confirmed as existing as of the beginning of the 2017
survey, with several exceptions: Y’s Secondary House (#25), Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary
House (#32), and Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence (#45). As the Committee also conductedsurveys on these three houses, they are included in the list.

3【Legend】

Photo in the catalog,
taken after completion

・Name of house in the catalog(Houses in this book are listed by actual name)・Location(For relocated houses, the current location is listed. For demolished houses, the original location is listed.)・Year of completion(Final year of Shimizu-gumi’s involvement in construction.)・Architectural design

1. N’s House/ Niigata,
Niigata/ 1938/ Shimizugumi

2. Japanese Restaurant 3. T’s House/ Myōkō,
4. M’s House/N/ Niigata, Niigata/
Niigata/ 1934/ Shimizu- Kanazawa, Ishikawa/
1932 etc./ Shimizu-gumi gumi
1931/ Shimizu-gumi

5. Moichirō Saitō Holiday
House [p.120]/ Nasu,
Tochigi/ 1936/ Masao
Inoue

6. Tetsusaburō Tazawa
Holiday House [p.120]/
Nasu, Tochigi/ 1936/
Shimizu-gumi

7. M’s Holiday House/
Nasu, Tochigi/ 1936/
Shimizu-gumi

9. H’s House/ Minato,
Tokyo/ 1928/ Shimizugumi

10. Tachū Naitō House[p.266]/ Shinjuku,
Tokyo/ 1926/ Tachū
Naitō, Shichirō Kigo

11. F’s House/ Shinjuku, 12. H’s House, Atelier/Tokyo/ 1936/ Shimizu- Bunkyō, Tokyo/ 1935/
gumi (demolished 2017) Shimizu-gumi

4

8. K’s Holiday House/
Nasu, Tochigi/ 1936/
Shimizu-gumi13. Suekichi Kanazawa
House [p.306]/ Bunkyō,Tokyo/ 1930/ TsunejiKanazawa

14. Eiichi, Tokuji & Keizō
Shibusawa Residence[p.244]/ Scheduled to berestored in Kōtō, Tokyo,
in 2022/ 1878 etc./
Kisuke Shimizu et al.

15. H’s House/
Shinagawa, Tokyo/
1933/ H’s House
Construction Team

16. Yonejirō Sugimura
House [p.136]/ Setagaya,
Tokyo/ 1937/ Shimizu-gumi

17. Yōnosuke Shimizu
Secondary Residence[p.208]/ Setagaya,
Tokyo/ 1937 etc./
Shimizu-gumi

18. Masao Koga House[p.200]/ Shibuya,
Tokyo/ 1938/ Shimizugumi

19. Taizō Ishizaka
Residence [p.278]/
Shibuya, Tokyo/ 1934
etc. / Shimizu-gumi, Jin
Watanabe

20. Y’s House/
Nakano,Tokyo/ 1928/
Shimizu-gumi

21. Reischauer House[p.218]/ Suginami,
Tokyo/ 1940/ RaymondArchitectural Design
Office22. Kasanu Emori House[p.130]/ Mitaka, Tokyo/
1923/ Shimizu-gumi

23. Ehrismann
Residence [p.60]/
Yokohama, Kanagawa/
1926/ RaymondArchitectural Design
Office24. O’s House/ Yokohama,
Kanagawa/ 1937/ Shimizugumi

25. Y’s Secondary House/
Yokohama, Kanagawa/
1925/ Asaichi Hiramatsu(demolished)

27. Hideko Fujise
26. Kōichi Saito
Secondary House [p.166]/ Secondary House[p.50]/ Zushi,
Hayama, Kanagawa/Kanagawa/ 1934/
1928/ Shimizu-gumi
Shimizu-gumi

5

28. M’s Secondary House/
Kamakura, Kanagawa/
1934/ Shimizu-gumi32. Morinosuke Mitsui
Secondary House[p.102]/ Ōiso, Kanagawa/
1927/ Kōzaburō Kigo
(demolished 2014, somecomponents arepreserved)

29. M’s House/ Kamakura,
Kanagawa/ 1937/
Saneichi Minoura (箕浦實一) (demolished 2018)

30. Kanbee Kokubu
Kugenuma Holiday
House [p.226]/ Fujisawa,
Kanagawa/ 1931/
Shimizu-gumi

31. Zenjirō Yasuda
Holiday Residence[p.234]/ Ōiso, Kanagawa/
1928/ Shimizu-gumi

33. M’s Secondary
House/ Ōiso, Kanagawa/
1933/ Shimizu-gumi

34. Kengo Ishi
Secondary Residence,
Main Building [p.144]/
Atami, Shizuoka/ 1933/
Shimizu-gumi

36. Kaichirō Nezu
35. Tozansō Sansō-an
Secondary Residence(Kengo Ishi Secondary(Bathroom etc.) [p.74]/
Residence, Annex)[p.144]/ Atami, Shizuoka/ Atami, Shizuoka/ 1929/
Shimizu-gumi
1935/ Shimizu-gumi

37. Kaichirō Nezu
Secondary Residence(Western-style building)[p.74]/ Atami, Shizuoka/
1932/ Shimizu-gumi

38. Rihee Hyuga
Secondary House[p.110]/ Atami,
Shizuoka/ 1935/ Jin
Watanabe

39. Tamotsu Takahashi
Holiday House [p.156]/
Atami, Shizuoka/ 1937/
Shimizu-gumi

40. Y’s Holiday House/
Atami, Shizuoka/ 1936/
Shimizu-gumi

41. T’s Holiday House/
Atami, Shizuoka/ 1936/
Shimizu-gumi

42. Tsunekichi Niitsu
Secondary House[p.174]/ Izunokuni,
Shizuoka/ 1937/
Shimizu-gumi

43. Kojirō Magoshi
Secondary Residence[p.260]/ Ito, Shizuoka/
1928/ Shimizu-gumi

44. Kiichirō Toyoda
Secondary House[p.194]/ Toyota, Aichi/
1933/ Teiji Suzuki645. Kyūdayū Kawakita
Residence [p.88]/ Tsu,
Mie/ 1916 etc./ Shintarō
Ooe, Junkichi Tanabe, etal. (demolished 1985,
some components arepreserved)

46. D’s House/ Owase,
Mie/ 1931/ Shimizugumi

47. S’s House/ Kyoto,
Kyoto/ 1932/
W.M.Voreis & Company
Architects

48. Gendō Yamaguchi
Residence [p.286]/ Kyoto,
Kyoto/ 1924/ Goichi
Takeda49. Hiroshi Tanaka
Secondary Residence[p.292]/ Kyoto, Kyoto/
1936/ Shimizu-gumi

50. K’s Secondary
House/ Kyoto, Kyoto/
1925/ Shimizu-gumi

51. I’s Secondary House/
Kobe, Hyogo/ 1923/
Shichirō Kigo

52. I’s Secondary House/
Kobe, Hyogo/ 1931/
Shimizu-gumi

53. I’s House/ Ashiya,
Hyogo/ 1936/ Shimizugumi

54. N’s House/
Nishinomiya, Hyogo/
1937/ Shimizu-gumi

55. S’s House/ Izumo,
Shimane/ 1935/
Shimizu-gumi(demolished circa 2017)56. M’s Secondary
House/ Takamatsu,
Kagawa/ 1917/ Shimizugumi

57. Tokujirō Ishibashi
58. T’s House/ Busan,
Residence [p.184]/
South Korea/ 1931/
Kurume, Fukuoka/ 1933/ Shimizu-gumi
Gunpei Matsuda

7

Table of Contents
Preface
List of existing houses from Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku kenchiku zushū
Chapter 1 About Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū
1 Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū and the Overview of thisSurvey and Research (Jun Hatano)
2 Transition of the Housing World in Japan in the Taisho to Early
Showa Period (Seizō Uchida)
3 Shimizu-gumi and the Many Houses Built by the Company in the
Pre-war Period (Toshiaki Koguro, Takako Hatada)
Chapter 2 Houses that Connect Feelings
1 Hideko Fujise Secondary House
A secondary house on a hill in Zushi: a marriage of Japanese styleand Western style (Yoshiko Mizunuma)【Analysis】 Exploring the Future of the Public-Private Partnership(Yoshiko Mizunuma)
2 Ehrismann Residence
Antonin Raymond’s architecture restored in a park setting(Yoshiko Mizunuma)【Tips to Preserve Buildings I】 Rekishi wo Ikashita Machizukuri Yōkō
(Guidelines for Historically Inspired Participatory Urban
Development) in Yokohama City and Preservation of Historical
Buildings (Yoshiko Mizunuma)
3 Kaichirō Nezu Secondary Residence (present Kiun-kaku)
A symbol of Atami, protected by women (Akira Yasuno)【Analysis】 The Sunroom (Akira Yasuno)
4 Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence
Residence to connect memories - from the story of a family to thestory of a neighborhood (Setsuko Nakajima)【Tips to Preserve Buildings II】 Heritage Manager: Local Expert Of
Historical Buildings (Setsuko Nakajima)
5 Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary House
Excellent architecture in Ōiso where a “ridge beam lowering
ceremony” was held (Yoshiko Mizunuma)
6 Rihee Hyuga Secondary House
The modern Japanese-style house overshadowed by the work of
Bruno Taut (Asae Ozawa)

8

1
3
14
24
32

50
58
60
67

74
84
88
100
102
110

Chapter 3 Wisdom to Sustain a House Across Generations
1 Moichirō Saitō Holiday House & Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House 120
Receiving guests and pleasant company at a holiday house (Jun
Hatano)【Analysis】 Fascinating Holiday House Architecture (Jun Hatano)125
2 Kasanu Emori House130
A house inherited over the course of three generations (Seizō
Uchida)3 Yonejirō Sugimura House
136
A modern house awaiting an opportunity for reuse (Seizō Uchida)
4 Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence (present Tōzan-sō)
144
A house to convey the passion of the new owner (Seizō̄ Uchida)【Analysis】 Kengo Ishii Primary Residence: Another Residence
154(Seizō Uchida)
5 Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House
156
Conversion of elegant Japanese-style design to a restaurant with atea room (Asae Ozawa)【Analysis】 Japanese-style Design of Shimizu-gumi (Asae Ozawa)162
6 Kōichi Saitō Secondary House
166
A house converted from a secondary house to a main house, andthen a two-family house (Yoshiko Mizunuma)
7 Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House
174
Preservation achieved by a real estate listing (Asae Ozawa)
Chapter 4 Houses that Have Become Monuments and Part of the Collective
Memory1 Tokujirō Ishibashi Residence (present Ishibashi Guest House)
184
Deep understanding in the original design and creation of amaintenance plan for the future (Setsuko Nakajima)
2 Kiichirō Toyoda Secondary House
194
Inherited monumental house that recalls the foundation of thecompany (Zentarō Yagasaki)
3 Masao Koga House (present exhibition “Koga Masao no Sekai” [the 200
World of Masao Koga] in the Koga Masao Museum of Music)
Sentiment that the musician put into this house (Akira Yasuno)

94 Yōnosuke Shimizu Secondary Residence (present Kyū Shimizu-ke
Jūtaku Shoin)
Traditional Japanese-style architecture restored after one hundredyears (Takako Hatada)
5 Reischauer House (present Tokyo Woman’s Christian University
Reischauer House ) ［Not available online］
A structure to communicate the life of the founder (Akira Yasuno)
6 Kanbee Kokubu Kugenuma Holiday House
Founder’s house inherited by the company (Asae Ozawa)
7 Zenjirō Yasuda Holiday Residence
Tragic holiday residence of the founder, preserved as a memorial(Asae Ozawa)
Chapter 5 Houses Supported with Design, Engineering, and Material
1 Eiichi, Tokuji, and Keizō Shibusawa Residence
The house loved by an entrepreneur who led the modernization ofJapan,and the 140-year-long story sustained through three
relocations (Takako Hatada)【Analysis】 What Inherited Residential Architecture Tells Us (Takako
Hatada)【Tips to Preserve Buildings III】 Reassemble or Move as a Whole:
Structure Relocation as a Preservation Method (Seizō Uchida)
2 Kōjirō Magoshi Secondary Residence
Design skill to enliven both Japanese style and Western style(Jun Hatano)
3 Tachū Naitō House
The first house in Japan that integrated earthquake-proof andfireproof architecture into a design for modern lifestyles(Seizō Uchida)【Analysis】 Reinforced concrete houses before the Second World War
Transition of reinforced houses in the Catalog: from the loadbearing wall structure to rigid frame structure (Toshiaki Koguro)
4 Taizō Ishizaka Residence (present Official Residence of theAmbassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to Japan)
A house showing its charm through different uses of two parts ofthe building (Seizō Uchida)
5 Gendō Yamaguchi Residence (present Saint Thomas Gakuin)
A house designed by Goichi Takeda is inherited to serve as amonastery (Zentarō Yagasaki) ［Not available online］
10

208

218
226
234

244

255
257
260
266

274
278

286

6 Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence (present Ruri-kōin)
Modern Japanese-style house inherited through conversions of its
usage in Yase, Kyoto (Rie Nakayama)【Tips to Preserve Buildings IV】Kyoto City’s Strategy to Inherit
Kyō-machiya (Setsuko Nakajima)
7 Suekichi Kanazawa House
A house showing the importance of family bonds (Seizō Uchida)

292
300
306

Chapter 6 Legal Systems for Historical Houses
1 Comparison of Legal Systems Applied to Historical Houses
314
2 System for Inheriting Houses
321
Trend of the Registered Cultural Property system and municipalities(Asae Ozawa)
3 Switch To “Keep and Change”
327
New slogan replacing “Scrap and Build” (Seizō Uchida)

11

12

Chapter 1
About Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū

13

1-1

Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku
Zushū and the Overview of thisSurvey and Research
Jun Hatano

What is Jūtaku kenchiku zushū?
Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (residential architecture catalog) is comprised of
the following two books (Fig. 1):- Shimizu-gumi Limited Partnership Company, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, vol. 1,
Doboku Kenchiku Shiryō Shimbun-sha, 1935
- Shimizu-gumi, Ltd., Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, vol. 2, Shimizu-gumi, Ltd.,1939
The books devote one or two pages each to houses built, or designed andbuilt, by Shimizu-gumi (present Shimizu Corporation), with accompanying
photographs and a summary of data including location, dimensions,structure, and architect. Floor plans are included in most cases. The intentionof the books to serve as a collection of case studies for professionals is statedin the forward of volume one.
“We expect development of the perfect residential architecture and hope that
this book serves as great references for design and construction.”
Additionally, each chapter elaborates on the perception and intention
behind the books. There is also recognition of the present situation andcontext.

Volume 1 (published in
1935)

Volume 2 (published in
1939)［Fig. 1］ Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku kenchiku zushū

14

Volume 1 (published in1935)

“Residential architecture is in transition now. We cannot feel satisfied withcopying Western-style architecture intact, nor just reproducing conventional
Japanese-style architecture. (...) In this age, the Japanese-Western eclectic
style is the most common in this society.”
The volumes reflect the company’s recognition of the important role ofhouses for the lifestyle of the nation and the company’s mission andaspiration to improve the standard of houses.
“A house tells the truth of each age. A house can even indicate the quality of
the culture, the nation, and the education in each country.”
Moreover, the company took the position that “a house is a bowl for afamily”, and holds psychological importance. Furthermore, “a house is notenough if it just works as a roof over the heads of people.” They elaborate as
follows:“A house is a place for rest and quiet of a family, a place for peace andharmony of a family, a place for replenishing vitality of a family, and a placefor educating offspring. ”
However, the houses featured in this book are generally large mansions
according to the scale standard used at the time, except for some holiday
houses and ateliers. In addition to family space, a mansion requires
appropriate guest space to reflect the social status of the owner, which was
also a main focus for determining layout and design. The volumes’ focus on afamily lifestyle that assumes such wealth and status should be seen as
anticipation for the future.
Completion year of construction of houses and scope of variety in structureand style
The first volume of Jūtaku kenchiku zushū features 203 houses built
between 1906 and 1934, and includes in the appendix seven additional nonresidential buildings which served as inns, hotels, or a single restaurant. Its
second volume introduces 164 houses built between 1934 and 1938. These367 houses are a selection of the many houses Shimizu-gumi built during thisperiod.

15

Table 1 indicates the completion year of construction for the houses
included in the books. The number of houses built during the Meiji era(1868-1912) and the Taisho era (1912-1926) does not reflect the actual
amount of construction during this period. Unfortunately, many
contemporary source materials that could have assisted with research forthe books were lost due to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
Distribution of structural types is also explained in Table 1. Wooden
structures make up the majority (83 percent), with the percentage being
similar in both volumes. At the time of construction, it was generally thenorm for residences to be wooden, while other various structures were builtwith reinforced concrete.
However, it is somewhat difficult to discuss norms and trends inconstruction beyond general statements. As the reader will discover in thetable data and discussions in each chapter, when it comes to the appearanceof houses, contemporary usage of technical terms was not consistent. As
stated in the abovementioned citation from the foreword, many houses werebuilt in the Japanese-Western eclectic style, with Western-style rooms
incorporated into Japanese-style houses, or vice versa. Despite this generaltaste in construction, a certain amount of pure Japanese-style architecture
was built as well. Japanese-style buildings were important as an expressionof status.
Distribution of size and client
Figure 2 shows distribution of size (total floor area) of the 367 houses
covered in the books. Forty percent of houses (n=145) were between 50
tsubo (about 165 sq. m.) and 100 tsubo (about 331 sq. m.), and 24 percent ofhouses (n=89) were between 100 tsubo and 150 tsubo (about 496 sq. m.).
The houses in the books fall within or near this size range, which is obviously
large compared to the majority of houses at the time. Therefore, many of thehouses examined are what should properly be referred to as mansions, withall the status the word implies. Sixteen houses from the first volume andthree from the second volume are especially large, with dimensions of morethan 300 tsubo (about 992 sq. m.).
Clients included members of the contemporary peerage, scholars, andthose representing the political and business establishment. The residenceswere of a scale befitting their status, professions, and responsibilities. In
addition to daily living space for families, the houses required proper spacefor guests.
16

［Table 1］ Completion year and structure of houses in Jūtaku kenchiku zushū
Structure
Completion
Year

N
Brick

Wood

Wood,

RC,

partially

partially

RC

wood

RC

Volume 1
1906

1

1

1909

1

1

1912

1

1

1916

2

2

1920

1

1

1921

3

3

1923

3

3

1924

7

6

1

1925

13

12

1

1926

14

10

4

1926

1

1

1927

6

2

1928

17

13

1929

18

15

1930

17

16

1931

20

17

1932

23

1※

21

1933

37

1＋1★

32

1

1

1

1934

18

13

2

1

1＋1☆

Subtotal

203

4

169

7

4

19

1934

19

１

17

1935

37

1

31

3

2◇

1936

43

1

34

4

1

3

1937

57

48

5

2

2

1938

8

6

1

1

1

1

2

1

3

2

1
1

1◆

2
1

Volume 2
1

Subtotal

164

3

136

13

6

6

Total

367

7

305

20

10

25

［Legend］ — ◆: wood and brick, ※: brick, RC, and timber frame, ★: brick and RC,☆: SRC, ◇: RC and brick17

［Fig. 2］ Distribution of size (total floor area, n=367)

One of the particularly large-scale mansions is the immense Hiun-kaku,
covering 580 tsubo (about 1917 sq. m.). The house was built by Yorinaga
Matsudaira, former lord of Takamatsu domain, as a guesthouse in Takamatsu.
It followed the style of palaces in the domain administration era, while
applying the style of the new era, with its Western-style roof frame for a longspan. Yorinaga’s house in Tokyo is also huge, occupying approximately 350
tsubo (about 1157 sq. m.).
Another huge mansion exceeding 300-tsubo in area is the residence of
the Shibusawa family. The book frequently refers to the strong ties between
Shibusawa Eiichi and Shimizu-gumi. Many mansions of the Shibusawa family
were designed and constructed by Shimizu-gumi. The 300-tsubo mansion
had previously been relocated and preserved in Rokunohe, Aomori, but it
will be relocated a second time for preservation in Tokyo (p.244).
The residence of Motonosuke Mitsui, former president of Mitsui & Co.,
Ltd., is an exceptionally large 973 tsubo (about 3217 sq. m.) in total. It
includes a Western-style building of 639 tsubo (about 2112 sq. m.) and aJapanese building of 334 tsubo (about 1104 sq. m.). The main house of Jirō
Inabata, a businessman in western Japan, is also huge, at 313 tsubo (about
1035 sq. m., in Ashiya, Hyogo).

18

Some houses and secondary houses were built through connections
created through construction of corporate buildings by Shimizu-gumi.
Examples include the following: the secondary residence of Kaichirō Nezu,
the first president of Tobu Railway Co., Ltd. (Atami, p.74); the holiday
residence of Zenjirō Yasuda, the founder of Yasuda Conglomerate (Oiso,
p.234); the holiday house at Kugenuma owned by Kanbee Kokubu, former
president of Kokubu, a general food trading company founded in the Edo
period (Fujisawa, p.226); and the secondary house of Kiichirō Toyoda,
founder of Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota, p.194).
Geographic distribution of the existing houses
Geographic distribution of the existing houses is illustrated on page 3. It isnatural that the residences of people in the political and businessestablishment or scholars are concentrated in the Tokyo area (Tokyo and
Yokohama) and Kansai area (Kyoto and around Kobe). The area around
Sagami Bay, such as Kanagawa prefecture (Zushi, Hayama, Kamakura, andOiso) and Shizuoka prefecture (Atami and Itō), accommodated many holiday
houses and secondary houses near Tokyo, which were used for entertaining
guests. The houses in Nasu, Tochigi prefecture are holiday houses
neighboring a famous country club. Yōnosuke Shimizu, former vice presidentof Shimizu-gumi, was one of the founding members of the country club, andhis friend gathered around it.
Residences in rural areas also have a specific reason for their location.
The main house of Tsunekichi Niitsu, known as the “Oil King”, is in Niigata,where his business was founded. As previously mentioned, Hiunkaku in
Takamatsu was built inside the plot of the castle as a house of the former
lord of the domain. Tokujirō Ishibashi Residence (p.184) in Kurume, Fukuoka,
is a house of a senior brother of Shojirō Ishibashi, the founder of Bridgestone
Corporation.
In-house design and architect
While Shimizu-gumi constructed all 367 houses in the Catalog, not all ofthem were designed by Shimizu-gumi. Shimizu-gumi designed 260 of thesehouses (71 percent) in total: 137 houses (67 percent) in volume one and 123
houses (75 percent) in volume two. The remaining 107 houses (29 percent)were designed by external architects: 66 houses (33 percent) in volume one
and 41 houses (25 percent) in volume two.

19

In-house design and the departments and staff members responsible forthe designs are covered in detail in Chapter 1, Article 3, “Shimizu-gumi andits many houses in the pre-war period”. In terms of external architects, sixty
one architects appear in the Catalog, including top architects of that period.
External architects included Jin Watanabe (thirteen times), Yoshitoki
Nishimura (eight times), Kikuji Ishimoto (seven times, including once as
Kataoka Ishimoto Architectural Firm), Junken Wada (four times, including
one project by Hamaguchi House Construction Team), RaymondArchitectural Design Office (three times), and Kozaburō Kigo (three times).
The professional relationship between Jin Watanabe and Shimizu-gumi
started with the Tōyō Building project in 1925 in Nagoya. Their partnership
continued with projects such as the Hotel New Grand (Yokohama) and Ginza
Wako (Tokyo). They also worked on many residential construction projects,
such as Rihee Hyuga Secondary House (Atami, p.110), the extension of Taizō
Ishizaka House (the present official residence of the Ambassador of the
Republic of Bulgaria to Japan, Tokyo), and Kunizō Hara House (the present
Hara Museum, Tokyo). Jin Watanabe was a skillful architect who could apply
a wide range of styles flexibly, from formal Western-style architecture, to theImperial Crown style, to modernism. Bruno Taut, who designed thebasement of the Rihee Hyuga Secondary House (designated as a National
Important Cultural Property), also highly praised the designs of Jin Watanabe.
Yoshitoki Nishimura moved to the Dai-ichi Bank after working in design
for Shimizu-gumi, and designed many bank buildings. The houses hedesigned show an elegant organization of the interior of Western-stylerooms (see Eiji, Tokuji, and Keizō Shibusawa House, p.244).
Houses designed by Kikuji Ishimoto, a member of Bunriha Kenchiku Kai(Secessionist Architectural Group), were in various styles, including both
Japanese-style and Western-style, but always reflect his intention to adapt
elements of Secession design, such as symbolic round windows.
Antonin Raymond accompanied Frank Lloyd Wright to Japan for theconstruction of the Imperial Hotel, and he continued his design activity inJapan until the post-war period. He designed many houses for non-Japaneseclients, such as Reischauer House (Tokyo, p.218) and Ehrismann Residence(Yokohama, p.60). His neat, crisp design had an influence on many Japanesearchitects.

20

The architect Kozaburō Kigo, who designed Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary
House (some components are preserved, p.102), learned Japanese-stylearchitecture from his father, Kiyoyoshi Kigo, and Western-style architecturefrom Tōkuma Katayama. He was an architect of the Bureau of Skilled Artisansof the Imperial Household Ministry, and designed many houses for imperialfamily members, such as the Western-style building of the Takeda-no-miyaresidence.
Goichi Takeda was an architect of the Kansai area. One of his works,
Gendō Yamaguchi Residence (Kyoto, p.286), retains its powerful design, evenafter its conversion to a Christian facility.
Shichirō Kigo showcased his skill in the quality of the interior of Tachū
Naitō House (Tokyo, p.266). The house for Tachū Naitō, a professor ofstructural design, is monumental architecture in the new structural style,that of wall-type reinforced concrete structure.
Tsuneji Kanazawa, son of Suekichi Kanazawa, designed Suekichi Kanazawa
House (Tokyo, p.306). The irregular floor plan based on cardinal directions isinteresting. Tsuneji was one of the first graduates of the architecture courseof Tokyo Fine Art School, and his fellow artists contributed elements of theirown work to his design, such as engravings of ranma (transom window) andhandles and paintings of fusuma (papered sliding door).
Why did these houses survive? How did people preserve them?
Of the 367 houses in the Catalog, fifty eight houses still exist. Considering
the periods of war, the rush of reconstruction, and the bubble economy, it istruly surprising that so many such houses have remained. Each house musthave a unique story behind it.
Chapters 2 to 5 are focused on the questions of why these houses
survived and how people preserved them.
Chapter 2, entitled “Houses that Connect Feelings”, examines houses
inherited by local governments. It is not easy for municipalities to inherit ahouse that its residents cannot retain. Municipal inheritance has beenenabled by the efforts of local residents and architectural researchers, whichconsequently motivated local administrations and created community
sentiment in favor of preservation. Some houses were taken apart,preserved carefully as components, and await reassembly at some future
date.
21

Chapter 3, entitled “Wisdom to Sustain a House Across Generations”,
examines cases of houses inherited properly despite extension, renovation,or change of usage. The extension and renovation of a house wereconducted in response to a variety of factors. For example, changes in family
composition, inheritance, purchase and sale, or a change in usage, such as
from a holiday house to a Japanese-style restaurant. Such adaptation createdvitality in the buildings. These adaptations were made possible by the
exceptional ideas of architects and the reliable quality of craftsmanship.
Holiday houses included in this chapter must have been kept alive by the
scenic beauty of the area.
Chapter 4, entitled “Houses that Have Become Monuments and Part of
the Collective Memory”, features cases where people of later generations
inherited sentiments and emotions surrounding certain houses, such as thatof a traditional company, a founder of a university, or an eminent music
composer. These houses preserve memories as resources for coming
generations, as monuments of the struggles of fledgling companies, or
expressions of passion towards a building. While not sustained as residences,these houses directly express the promise of “something to be delivered”.
Chapter 5, entitled “Houses Supported with Design, Engineering, andMaterial”, introduces ground-breaking design works by architects andprojects where the longevity of houses come from outstanding construction
technology and high quality materials. These houses increase in brilliance astime goes by. This chapter illuminates pioneering ideas and designs, and thetechniques needed to make careful use of high quality materials in thesehouses.
Each remaining house has its own story. Some houses were preserved as
dismantled components with the expectation of reconstruction. Somehouses were recently demolished despite confirmation of its existence in the
preliminary survey. There must have been important memories and histories
in these demolished houses as well.
A town can exist on accumulated histories. The remaining houses convey
the importance of handing over “sceneries in memories” to the next
generation.

22

23

1-2

Transition of the Housing World inJapan in the Taisho to Early Showa
PeriodSeizō Uchida

Japanese-style/Western-style buildings parallel type house: birth of theresidential style for the upper class
In the Meiji era, the Meiji government promoted two slogans, “Shokusan
kogyo” (encouragement of new industry) and “Fukoku kyōhei” (enrich thecountry and strengthen the armed forces), to reflect their drive toincorporate elements of Western culture and to create a new nation to
support those goals. The Westernization of housing was also pursued,
particularly among the residences of the upper class. A new residential style,known as the Japanese-style/Western-style buildings parallel type, emergedat the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912), wherein a Western-stylebuilding was located next to a traditional Japanese-style building.
The hurried introduction of Western style into residences was a reflectionof new systems emerging in that time period. For example, in 1872, Meiji
designated a Western-style uniform as an official outfit. Going forward, highlevel government officials must adopt Western-style dress not only forvarious ceremonies, but also for daily commuting and work hours. Suchchanges were led by the Meiji Emperor, who in 1872 began wearing
Western-style dress, and in the following year had his topknot cut.
To accompany this transition to Western-style clothes, public architecture,especially city halls where officials worked, were converted from a floorseating space with tatami flooring to a chair-seating space with woodflooring. Houses also changed to the aforementioned Japanesestyle/Western-style buildings parallel type house. Around this time people
also started switching Japanese style and Western style, as some began
going out in Western-style clothes and staying home in Japanese-style
clothes. People in lower socio-economic positions could simply switch
clothes, but people above a certain station sometimes had visitors inWestern-style dress come to their homes, and therefore needed both newwardrobes as well as space to entertain such guests. Consequently, they
started using two buildings, one for each purpose. Daily life carried on in a
traditional Japanese-style building, while preparations for the reception of
guests in Western-style clothes were performed in a Western-style building.

24

Two of the first examples of the Japanese-style/Western-style buildings
parallel houses are the Duke Mōri Residence, completed in 1873, and theMarquis Kuroda Residence, completed in 1874. Each of these residences has
a Western-style building next to a Japanese-style building (Fig. 1). These two
residences were made before Imperial visits in 1873 and 1875 respectively,
so their Western-style buildings can be interpreted as a place to welcome theemperor in Western-style clothes 1 . These Western-style buildings implied aclose relationship with the authoritative emperor, and gained importance asa rare status symbol, not just as a special residential style.
Currently, the oldest example of this residential style in Tokyo is theFormer Hisaya Iwasaki Residence, which is also registered as a national
important cultural property (Fig.2). At the Iwasaki Residence, the daily
activities of most family members usually took place in the Japanese-stylebuilding, while the Western-style building was used as a place of reception.
The exception was Hisaya Iwasaki, who had studied in the US. He often used
the study in the Western-style building for reading and doing research, aswell as for reception 2 . Others gradually started using a Western-stylebuilding for personal use as Hisaya did, and some people eventually shifted
the primary location for their daily activities to a Western-style building. By
the time the Japanese-style/Western-style buildings parallel type began toinfluence the style of middle class residences, the parallel type had started tochange from a simple swapping of two different buildings into a more
eclectic integration of Japanese and Western styles.
［Fig. 1］ Kuroda House［Fig. 2］ Former Hisaya Iwasaki Residence25Prevalence of Westernization in the Taisho era ~Japanese-style/Westernstyle buildings parallel type house to Japanese-Western-eclectic-style
house~
From the end of the Meiji era to the beginning of the Taisho era (19121926), the taste for a more Western- style lifestyle had begun to slowly
spread beyond the elite upper class into the middle class. Befitting this new
taste, Westernized features appeared in medium or small-sized houses of the
middle class.
For example, Shinsuke Hashiguchi began selling imported Americanhouses as a way to introduce efficient American houses and the lifestyle theyembodied. After living in Seattle, Washington, Hashiguchi returned to Japan
in 1908 and established a home builder, America-Ya, the following year.
America-Ya became rather famous as a builder in the Taisho era, and thecompany actively promoted medium/small-scale chair-seating houses.
In addition, in 1916, Hashiguchi created the organization, “Jūtaku Kairyokai” (House Improvement Group), with Suzuko Misumi, an educator and theprincipal of Tokiwamatsu Girl’s School. Their goal was to promote theWesternization of houses, and their method was to reach middle-classhousewives through the magazine Jūtaku (house). Misumi focused on theideas of reduction of household labor and improvement of kitchen efficiency
based on “the principles of motion economy”. The organization and the
movement it spurred attracted the attention of the Ministry of Educationand Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, and “Seikatsu-kaizen Domei-kai”
was established as an auxiliary organization of the Ministry of Education in
1920. The central government used this organization and promoted
Westernization by holding an exhibition for optimization of the entire
lifestyle, and by publishing the magazine, Seikatsu kaizen (lifestyle
improvement) (Fig. 4).

［Fig. 3］ Cover of the magazine Jūtaku

［Fig. 4］ Cover of the magazine Seikatsu kaizen

26

Through such campaigns, Westernization of medium/small-scale houses
was encouraged. In general, the Westernized house was called a JapaneseWestern-eclectic-style house, with both Japanese-style and Western-styleelements in a single house. However, they can be roughly divided into two
residential styles based on the Westernization process. In the first case, someresidences are classified as “a Japanese-style-based eclectic house”, which isa medium to small size Japanese-style house with one or two Western-stylerooms near its entrance. These traditional Japanese-style buildings
incorporate some elements of Western-style buildings, and they are also
called a Western-style-building-attached house. In the second case, someresidences are categorized as “a Western-style-based eclectic house”, which
is a small-scale Western-style building with some Japanese traditional
elements, such as floor seating. Both styles were created for new lifestyles,
with a mix of floor seating and chair seating, with the former being a
Japanese-style building and the latter a Western-style building.
These two residential styles evolved in different ways during the Taisho
and early Showa era. The Japanese-style-based eclectic house evolved into a
middle-corridor type. This type was a traditional Japanese-style house with a
middle corridor, a typical feature of Western-style buildings, and could be
regarded as a typical Japanese-style-based eclectic house. The original
Japanese-style-based eclectic house had the traditional room layout, withrooms directly connected, as to suggest one large room had simply been
divided. As the name implies, the middle-corridor type had a corridor in the
middle of the floor layout, which people used to move to other rooms.
In cases of the Western-style-based eclectic house, different styles ofsmall-scale Western-style buildings were in fashion and used as their mainbuilding in each time period. From the beginning to the middle of the Taisho
era, the most common style of the main building was the bungalow style,which featured verandas and a large entrance porch. The Spanish style,newly introduced from the United States, became popular after the Great
Kanto Earthquake. The Wright style was also popular in the late Taisho era,due to the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright and his visit to Japan as anarchitect of the Imperial Hotel. The Art Deco style and the modernist style,called new residential styles, were popularized at the beginning of the Showaera. Although these various Western styles proliferated among residences,
houses were Japanized by adding traditional Japanese architectural styles.
Some houses had a Japanese-style room with traditional decoration forreception, sliding windows reaching to the floor, and eaves above openings,
while still sustaining the Western-style Ookabe type exterior walls, where
pillars were buried in walls and therefore invisible. Ultimately, the external
appearance of the two residential styles gradually became similar (Fig. 5).
This Westernization process of houses is described in Figure 1.
27

［Table 1］ Westernization flow of modern Japanese house［Fig. 5］ Taizō Ishizaka Residence, an example of the Western-style-based eclectic house(p.278)28

Introduction of reinforced concrete structure
Reflecting changing times and new trends, the Western-style-based
eclectic house emerged in various styles, and the design of Japanese-stylemodern houses became more diverse. However, after the Great Kanto
Earthquake, and the resulting severe damage to brick structures, reinforced
concrete was introduced as a new structural style. Prior to the earthquake,large mansions had been designed in the historicism style. Japanese stylemansions were wooden, and Western style mansions were brick structures,with or without a stone pitching finish. Reinforced concrete structure, which
has high resistance to earthquakes and fire, by necessity became a structural
option for residential architecture.
From the end of the Meiji era, reinforced concrete structures had been
initially used primarily for bridges and storehouses, and only gradually cameto be considered suitable for living space for people. The Great Kanto
Earthquake dramatically advanced its use for houses. The Tachū Naitō Housein this book (p.266) was built in 1926, just after the earthquake. It was anexperimental house to test the usefulness of the load-bearing wall structure
within a house as a new method to mitigate damage from earthquakes. This
house can be regarded as a monumental house created as part of theJapanese process of house modernization. The Reischauer House, designed
by Antonin Raymond and built between 1926 and 1927, was also a
reinforced concrete building up to the second floor, while the square roof
was wooden. In addition to these examples, this book includes a residencewith a main wooden building and a reinforced concrete storehouse (Kasanu
Emori House, p.130) and a mixed-structure house with reinforced concrete
first floor and wooden second floor (Yonejirō Sugimura House, p.136).
Reinforced concrete houses were not prevalent until after the war, butvarious challenges before the war were important foundations for their later
increase in number. These pre-war houses show the early stages of theprocess of introducing reinforced concrete structure to Japanese-style
houses in detail.

29

Sukiya-style to minka/mingei-style
At the beginning of the Showa era, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius
pioneered modernist architecture as a highly influential international
movement. As awareness of their work increased internationally, somearchitects tried modernist-esque houses in Japan as well. In contrast, thetraditional uniquely Japanese architectural styles of sukiya-style design andminka/mingei-style design were applied to some houses, especially holiday
houses. This may appear to be a revival of tradition, but it can be interpreted
instead as a form of genuine modernist expression rejecting decorativeness.
In the Showa era, the Japanese-style-based eclectic house was still
popular, and many houses were built in that style. Most of these houses had
reception spaces, such as zashiki (reception room) and tsugi-no-ma(adjoining room), and some even had an independent tea room. In terms ofdesign of zashiki, the Sukiya-style was applied. It was slightly more casual
than the shoin-zukuri style in many houses, with materials such as bamboo
and wood with bark. This style can be seen in many houses included in thisbook. A typical example is the annex of the Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence
at Atami (p.144). The annex was a single storey small building with a hip-andgable roof thatched with cryptomeria bark, and was built as an addition in
the front garden of the main building in 1935. At the front of the only room,a shelf called “Kasumi-dana” was included. It was inspired by the Kasumidana of the Shugakuin Imperial Villa, which is known as one of the threemost beautiful shelves in Japan, and therefore can be regarded as a kind of“imitation”. However, there were some minka-style elements, such as thickbeams exposed in the room. The minka-style was added to the sukiya-style,thus creating a unique design.
At Yūki Secondary House, designed and constructed by Shimizu-gumi in1925 (now demolished), the minka-style design, such as neda-tenjō (ceilingwith visible joists) and kakekomi-tenjō (ceiling consisted of penetrated eaves)of reused wooden material, was applied in its guest room, dining room, andhiroma (hall). This reuse of old wooden material was a traditional method(Fig.6).

30

In contrast, Taneji Yamazaki Secondary Residence, built in 1936 andincluded in the Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, had a front gate with a thatched roof
and a detached tea room. An interesting feature of the main building is theearthen-floor room at the west end of the first floor. A fireplace was dug into
a tiled floor, and timbers with bark were used in the room. Such interior
design seems like the mingei-style design, which was in fashion then, beyond
the traditional minka-style. Secondary house architecture in the early Showa
era was clearly different from the primary house, although they were both
spaces for living. Interestingly, design of these secondary houses was lessrestricted and more harmonized with the rich surrounding naturalenvironment, and styles like the sukiya-style, minka-style, and mingei-style
were actively incorporated into these secondary houses.

［Fig. 6］ Interior of Yūki SecondaryHouse［Fig. 7］ Interior of Taneji Yamazaki
Secondary Residence (at completion; theearthen floor is on the left.)【References】
1. Seizō Uchida, “Yokan Kensetsu to Miyuki ni tsuite -- Wayoukan Heiretsu-gata Jutaku no
Tanjo no Haikei” (About Construction of Western-style Buildings and Imperial Visit -Background of the birth of Japanese-style/Western-style buildings parallel house),
Seisen bun’en, (34), 43-51, 2017, Research Institute For Cultural Science, Seisen
University
2. Terunobu Fujimori, Nihon no kindai kenchiku, jo (Japanese modern architecture, vol.1),
Iwanami Shoten, 1993
【Sources】
Table 1: Created by the author
Fig. 1: Journal of architecture in Japan, 1899
Fig. 2: Photograph taken by the author
Fig. 3: Jūtaku [House] vol 1, no.1, Jūtaku Kairyō-kai, Aug. 1916
Fig. 4: Seikatsu kaizien [Lifestyle improvement], vol. 1, Seikatsu Kaizen Dōmeikai, Apr.
1921
Fig. 5: Shimizu-gumi, Kōji nenkan [Construction yearbook], 1939
Fig. 6 : Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, vol. 1
Fig. 7 : Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
31

1-3

Shimizu-gumi and the Many Houses
Built by the Company in the Prewar Period
Toshiaki Koguro, Takako Hatada

Nowadays, residences built by major construction companies areprimarily apartment buildings. With the exception of houses for importantclients, they rarely build personal houses. However, the remaining
construction records of the pre-war period indicate that Shimizu Corporation
built many personal houses in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa era. From therecords of Shimizu-gumi (present Shimizu Corporation), the oldest house
built by the company was Nogezaka Jin’ya-mae Yakutaku (official residence infront of the administrative headquarters at Nogezaka, Yokohama), built in1859. In the Meiji era, the company built six trading houses, including
Yokohama Kyōryūchi Shōkan Jūyonbankan (Yokohama Foreign Settlement
Trading House No.14) in 1870, which were Western-style buildings housing
both offices and residences. The first personal house built was Viscount Eiichi
Shibusawa Residence (1878, Japanese-style building) by Kisuke Shimizu II in
Fukagawa Fukuzumi-chō. This building was relocated to Mita-tsunamachi,
Shiba ward in 1908, and appeared in the Catalog (vol. 1, p.1 and p.100).
The relationship between Shibusawa and Shimizu-gumi began in 1863.
After Kisuke Shimizu II created the Shinto altar in the Mimeguri Shrine, theguardian of Echigo-ya (the subsequent Mitsui Zaibatsu), Rizaemon Minomura,then manager of the company, introduced Kisuke Shimizu II to Shibusawa asa favor to the former to boost his business contacts. Their meeting led to theconstruction in 1872 of the Daiichi-Kokuritsu Bank building, then called
Mitsui-gumi House.
Mannosuke Shimizu, who became the third owner of Shimizu-gumi in
1881, also sought the guidance of Shibusawa. After Mannosuke Shimizu diedsuddenly in 1887, Shibusawa became an advisor to Shimizu-gumi. The
company continued the reforms promoted by Shimizu, and shifted its private
management style to an organizational management style. Shibusawa’s
credo of “the Analects and the Abacus”, became the company’s management
principle. In addition, through business with companies having a connection
with Shibusawa, the company overcame its crisis and created the foundation
for its modern contract work. Going forward, Shimizu-gumi accepted many
construction jobs from companies connected with Shibusawa and thoserelated to Mitsui Zaibatsu, as well as contracts to construct the houses of thecompanies’ executives.

32

Figure 1 indicates the main usage of buildings built by Shimizu-gumi in
the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods (until 1940). “Residence” includes
personal houses, company houses, and apartments, and “Residential
Facility” includes dormitories of factories and barracks in addition toresidences. It is safe to assume that the company built more buildings in the
Meiji period, but remaining documents are limited. More than half of thecompany’s old records and materials were reportedly destroyed in a series offour fires, including a fire caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake 1.

［Fig. 1］ Main usage of buildings built by Shimizu-gumi in
the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa period (until 1940)

33

Figure 1 also shows that Shimizu-gumi built many houses in the pre-war
period, and with residence recorded as the primary function of the buildings
they built. Of the 6,402 confirmed examples of construction from the Meiji
era to the Showa era (until 1940), residences comprise 23% (n=1473) in total:
17.1% (n=107) in the Meiji, 21.7% (n=471) in the Taisho, and 24.8% (n=895)
in the Showa. Regardless of sales value, residences were the majority of
construction projects.
In the ranking of building use in the Meiji period, factories, thefoundation of modernization in Japan, rank first (n=152) and banks, the basisof the modern financial system, place second (n=129). Residences (n=107),
mainly for business people, bankers, and politicians, rank fourth, with offices(n=99) following in fifth place.
Building use was also surveyed in two collections of Shimizu-gumi’s works
published in the Meiji era, Shimizu-kata kenchiku ie-no-shashin set 1/2(Shimizu-kata’s architecture - photos of houses) and Shimizu-kata kenchiku
kaoku satsuei (Photos of Shimizu-kata’s architecture and residences; six
volumes from 1889 to 1900). The collections encompass 150 buildings in
total, including the following building uses, listed in descending order: 31
factories, 26 houses, 20 offices, 10 banks, 10 schools, and 53 other buildings,
such as government office, hospital, dormitory, theater, exhibition venue,
clubhouse, train station, monument, and civil engineering works. The
collections show that many residential buildings were built in the Meiji
period.
The houses were built mainly for clients in the political and businessestablishment (Fig. 2), beginning with the residence (Western-style building
and Japanese-style building) of Eiichi Shibusawa, who was involved in theestablishment of more than 500 companies such as Daiichi National Bankand is regarded as a father of capitalism in Japan. More buildings for eliteclients followed: the residence (Western-style building) of Shigenobu Hozumi,
a son-in-law of Eiichi Shibusawa, law degree holder, professor of the law
school of the University of Tokyo, member of the House of Peers, and privy
councillor; residence (Western-style building and Japanese-style building) of
Munemitsu Mutsu; residence (Western-style building) of Sukenori Kabayama,a Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police, Minister of the Navy,and Governor General of Taiwan; residence (Western-style building) of
Sōichirō Asano, founder of Nihon Cement Corporation; and residence(Western-style building) of Aritomo Yamagata.
In the Taisho period, residence topped the list of building use (n=471),
followed by bank (n=422), factory (n=388), office (n=331), and storehouse(n=169).

34

Shibusawa residence (1888, Tokyo)

House at Kita-shinbori, Nihonbashi
ward (Sōichiro Asano House, 1890,
Tokyo)

Residence at Nishigahara, Westernstyle building (Munemitsu Mutsu
House, 1892, Tokyo)

Yamagata House (1898, Kyoto)［Fig. 2］ Shimizu-kata kenchiku ie-no-shashin set 1/2 and Shimizu-kata kenchiku
kaoku satsuei

35

During this period, the Japanese economy experienced a boom from theFirst World War, and the Japanese GDP increased threefold from 1914 to
1919. During this period, many companies were established, construction
demand increased, and many business people built their residences.
Additionally, in the Taisho period, many new electric railways were
established to serve the suburbs of the Tokyo metropolitan area and theKansai area. Rail expansion was supported by strong housing demand andled to the development of suburban houses. In the Meiji period, residential
areas were concentrated in six of the fifteen wards of Tokyo city, establishedin 1884: Kojimachi, Shiba, Akasaka, Kanda, Koishikawa, and Nihonbashi.
However, housing development led to the construction of houses in new
areas outside of Tokyo city, such as Shimo-Ochiai, Shibuya, Sendagaya, Ōmori,Nakano, and Den-en-Chōfu. Plans for restoration after the Great Kanto
Earthquake in 1923 also contributed to increased demand for housing.
The ranking of building use in the Showa period was led by residence(n=895), followed by factory (n=784), office (n=608), bank (n=338), andschool/education facility (n=288).
In the Showa period, immigration from rural areas to cities caused aconcentration of population (urbanization), and the company accepted
orders from a wider variety of clients in terms of social class and occupation.
While construction of businessmen’s houses increased, there were alsoorders from new types of clients, such as painters, musicians, noh actors,
lawyers, shop owners, and office workers. The middle class also began toown houses in the upper class holiday house enclaves of Hayama, theShonan coastal area (such as Oiso), Atami, and Hakone. The company also
built houses in cities such as Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, and Nagoya, and in therural areas of Hokkaido, Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Shimane, and Oita. The
company even built houses abroad, in Korea (Busan and Gyeongseong),
Manchuria (Hsinking), and Taiwan (Tainan, Taipei, and Kaohsiung).

36Design/Construction scheme for residential architecture of Shimizu-gumi
From the beginning of the Taisho period to 1938, when houses in theCatalog were completed, the Japanese economy experienced a rapid
succession of boom and bust periods: a boom during the First World War, apostwar bust, the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the Great Depression in
1929, and a period of recovery under the economic policies of Korekiyo
Takahashi. Around 1935, the Japanese pre-war economy reached its peak
and realized full industrialization. We now understand that these peaks also
mark the beginning of Japan’s eventual involvement in the Second WorldWar.
Shimizu-gumi completed modernization during this period. In 1915,
under the leadership of then-president Teikichi Shimizu , “Shimizu
Mannosuke Ten”, an organization under private management, wasreorganized into “Shimizu-gumi Limited Partnership Company”. Throughmultiple structural reforms, the company attempted to transform itself into asystematic construction contractor. After further reorganization it became ajoint-stock corporation in 1937.
The company’s design division was officially established when the thirdowner, Mannosuke Shimizu, invited Matatsune Sakamoto to be the first chiefarchitect 2, based on a recommendation from Kingo Tatsuno. A drafting room
was created in 1886.
A specialized group for residential design was formed in the early days ofthe design division. From the end of the Taisho period, residential design was
conducted by design teams led by two architects, Hiroshi Ōtomo andKihachirō Andō. Under organizational reforms in the latter part of 1934, a“residential design subsection” was formed to take the lead on residential
design, except in some special cases. Based on Sekkeibu no haiin-hyō (Rosterof the design department) in 1932, there were two design teams: one led byArchitect Ōtomo with 10 members, including architect Eitarō Suzuki; and asecond team of 10 members led by Architect Andō. Having two teams
enabled them to simultaneously oversee multiple design and construction
projects. A systematic design scheme was also established based on several
cooperating subsections -- a “structure subsection”, an “ancillary equipment
subsection” for water supply/drainage/sanitary systems and electricalequipment, and a “fixture and decoration subsection”.

37

In the construction division, “the construction chief system” 3 wasintroduced in 1916 as a result of revised operation rules 4, and the creationof specialized groups was pursued. Initially, four construction chiefs wereappointed, with twenty one construction managers below these chiefs, andfield managers below the construction managers. For additional efficiency ofconstruction, specialization for each building use category was also
promoted, such as residential architecture, factory architecture, and officearchitecture.
The organizational structure changed again in 1933 after several morereforms. After 1933, the company’s architecture division was composed offour departments, one “residence department” and three architecture
departments, and construction chiefs were appointed below eachdepartment chief. Shōtarō Morita, who had been involved in many
construction works for residential architecture, became the first department
chief of the residence department.
Specialized teams for each building use were therefore created in theearly days of the company, and design professionals and construction
professionals worked together. The company established thedesign/construction scheme specifically for residential architecture. This
organization allowed it to respond precisely to various requests from clientsand maintain the efficiency and quality of its residential buildings.

Design team specializing in residential building design
Among the 367 houses featured in Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, sixty one
external architects designed 107 houses (29%), and in-house architects of
Shimizu-gumi designed 260 houses (71%, including one joint design with an
external architect).
Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction completion report; From 1923 to
1945, 210 of 3,326 buildings in the report are included in the Catalog)
recorded who designed each building and which part of the construction
division took charge of each project. For in-house designers, names ofindividuals were not registered, while the design manager and the staff-incharge were identified based on the name seals on the drawings and theroster of the design department.

38

Table 1 (a breakdown of architects who designed buildings on theCatalog) indicates that starting after the Great Kanto Earthquake, specificsubsections (teams) took charge of residential building design, and that mostof these designs were supervised by Hiroshi Ōtomo or Kihachirō Andō (Fig. 3).
Of 260 houses in total, Hiroshi Ōtomo was a design manager of seventy threehouses (fifteen Japanese-style buildings, thirty four Western-style buildings,
and twenty four Japanese-Western-style buildings), and Kihachirō Andō wasa design manager of eighty two houses (twenty four Japanese-style buildings,
thirty eight Western-style buildings, and twenty Japanese-Western-stylebuildings). The teams of Ōtomo and Andō designed about sixty percent of all
the buildings in the Catalog designed by in-house architects. Volume one
features more buildings designed by Hiroshi Ōtomo, while volume two
includes more buildings designed by Kihachirō Andō.
［Table 1］ Architects who designed buildings in the Catalog
Vol. 1Vol. 2

Total

Hiroshi Ōtomo

50

23

73

Kihachirō Andō

32＊

50

82

Kyoto branch or
Osaka branch

3

15

18

Other architect

23

18

41

Construction
division

12

13

25

Shimizu-gumi(unknown)

17

4

21

Total

137

123

260

＊Including one project jointly designed with an external architect［Fig. 3］ Hiroshi Ōtomo (left) and Kihachirō Andō (right)

39

［Fig.4］ 1st and 2nd drafting room at Shimizugumi main branch (Junkichi Tanabe is second
from the left)［Fig.5］ 3rd drafting room at Shimizugumi main branch

Of the houses not designed by Ōtomo or Andō, eighteen houses were
designed by the company’s Kyoto branch or Osaka branch, forty one were
designed by other in-house staff, and twenty one buildings were designed byunknown architects. Additional in-house staff included Kisuke Shimizu II,
Shigeru Yada (1933, design department chief), Tokuzō Ozasa (1950, vicepresident), Kenji Yoshida (1941, Nagoya branch manager), Matsutarō
Fujimori (architect), Hiroshi Sakurai (1946, design department chief), andKen’ichi Yagi (1940, Manshu Shimizu-gumi, future managing director andchief architect).
The company’s construction division also designed twenty five houses(nine Japanese-style buildings, eight Western-style buildings, and eight
Japanese-Western-style buildings). This indicates that there were engineers
with residential design skills in the construction division. Drawings of thesehouses no longer exist, so details of the designs are unknown. Traditionally,
old houses were designed and constructed on site. This practice made it easy
to respond quickly and accurately to requests from clients, such as the choiceof materials and design changes once construction had begun. We may
therefore assume that for this reason some houses were built on site.

40

Hiroshi Ōtomo - A path from banks and commercial building design toresidential building design
Hiroshi Ōtomo, who designed seventy three houses in the Catalog, joined
Shimizu Mannosuke Ten in 1904 at fifteen years of age. After being amanager, he became an architect in 1925 at age thirty seven, and through aseries of promotions became the residential building design subsection chief
and the design section chief (at age fifty five). He worked steadily in design
until his retirement in 1948 at age sixty. During his early days with thecompany he attended night school, and graduated from the department ofarchitecture at Kōshu Gakko (“the technicians school”; presently Kogakuin
University). During the Meiji and Taisho periods, he was involved in thedesign of many buildings, primarily banks (Yonjū-ichi Bank Tokyo branch,
1909; Kawasaki Bank Sahara branch, 1914, present Sahara Mitsubishi Kan),
storehouses, and office buildings. Through these working experiences, helearned a wide range of design and skills, and was transferred to the section
for the design of residential buildings.
Some of his earliest projects as a design manager include Baron
Sumitomo Family Sumiyoshi Secondary Residence (1917, Kobe) andSadakichi Tanabe House (1917, Kobe, for the then manager of Sumitomo
Bank main branch). From 1924 (at age thirty six), he primarily oversaw
residential building design. He supervised many designs as “the chief ofresidential building subsection, design department” after the organizational
reform of November 1934 (at age forty six), then held the position of “designsection chief” from 1943.
Clients for his Catalog houses included some of the leading businessmen
and politicians of the period, which points to his outstanding design skills.
Clients included Kaichirō Nezu (founder of Nezu Zaibatsu), Prince Fumimaro
Konoe (34th, 38th, and 39th prime minister), Earl Yorinaga Matsudaira (12thhead of Matsudaira family, former feudal lord of the Takamatsu domain), andKakujirō Horikoshi (a wealthy merchant trading kimono fabric over four
generations). Fourteen houses he designed still exist today, such as Kaichiro
Nezu Secondary Residence (garden house and bathroom in 1929, Westernstyle building in 1932, Atami; p.74), Kanbee Kokubu Kugenuma Holiday
House (1931, Fujisawa; p.226), Hatsusaburō Minami House (1931, Kanazawa),
Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House (1937, Izunokuni; p.174), and Tsunekichi
Niitsu Residence (1938, Niigata, present Niitsu House).

41

Kakujirō Horikoshi House (1924, Tokyo)

Fumimaro Konoe House (1929, Tokyo)

Western-style building of Yorinaga
Matsudaira House (1929, Tokyo)［Fig.6］ House designed by Hiroshi Ōtomo

Kihachirō Andō - Devoted to residential building design
Kihachirō Andō designed eighty two buildings in the Catalog (thirty two invol. 1 and fifty in vol. 2). He was born the same year as Hiroshi Ōtomo. He
joined Shimizu-gumi in 1917, after his graduation in 1914 at age twenty six
from the department of design at Tokyo Fine Arts School (present day Tokyo
University of Arts)5. He was promoted to architect in 1918 (at age thirty), toresidential building design subsection head in 1934 (at age forty six), and todesign section chief in 1944 (at age fifty six). Until his retirement at age fifty
eight in 1946, he belonged to the design department, designed many houses,
and contributed to Shimizu-gumi as a specialist of residential building design,
together with Hiroshi Ōtomo. Some of the houses designed by Andō arestanding today.
Among Andō’s houses in the Catalog, the first building he designed in hisrole of design manager was Kanbee Kokubu House in Takanawa (1926,
Tokyo). After this project, he led a team and was involved with the design ofmany houses, both Japanese-style buildings and Western-style buildings.

42

Kanbee Kokubu House (1926, Tokyo)

Zenjirō Yasuda House (1935, Tokyo)

Taneji Yamazaki house (1935, Tokyo)［Fig.7］ House designed by Kihachirō AndōHis major clients included Kanbee Kokubu (president of Kokubu Shoten),
Heizaburō Okawa (the “Japanese papermaking magnate” and founder of
Okawa Zaibatsu), Yōnosuke Shimizu (vice president of Shimizu-gumi), Mohee
Mineshima (a major landowner), Muneaki Date (11th head of the Date family,
former feudal lord of Uwajima domain), Kōkichi Ohashi (Founder of Kyodo
Printing Co., Ltd.), Kōtarō Saji (president of Saji Tile Co., Ltd.), Zenjirō Yasuda(2nd head of Yasuda Zaibatsu), and Taneji Yamazaki (founder of Yamatane
Securities Co.,Ltd.). Of the many houses he designed for these elite clients,
twelve are known to be still standing, such as Kōichi Saito Secondary House(1928, Hayama; p.166), Mohee Mineshima Secondary House (1928, Oiso),Hideko Fujise Secondary House (1929, Zushi; p.50), Atelier of Shōkichi Hata
House (1935, Tokyo), and Taneji Yamazaki Holiday House (1936, Atami).

43Residence Department - Establishment of a specialized department forresidential architecture
For the construction division, the transition of organizations andassignment of personnel to each construction field can be partially traced
through some documents, such as Bumon no jinji rireki (hereafter, the Staff
Allocation Chart), the construction completion report, which was recordedmonthly from 1927 to 1943 (except in 1941), and the book Shimizu kensetsu
nihyakunen (Two hundred years of Shimizu Corporation).
The Staff Allocation Chart is a valuable resource for understanding thehistory of personnel at the time. It contains records of the names of theconstruction chief (vice department chief), the construction manager, thefield manager, and the field staff of each construction site. From the above
mentioned documents, construction engineers were confirmed for 285
projects out of 367 projects in the Catalog. Examining the records reveals
that two individuals in construction staff, Shōtarō Morita and AsatarōNakamura, were involved in many residential architecture projects.

［Table 2］ Number of houses in the Catalog that Shōtarō Morita took charge of in his
different positions
Morita’s position

MoritaTotal%

Before becoming a construction chief (fieldmanager)

05―Construction chief of the construction
department (Aug. 30, 1917 to Sep. 1927)

15

48

31%

Department chief of the 2nd construction
department (Oct. 1927 to Jan. 1932)

41

72

57%

Department chief of the architecture department(Feb. 1932 to Feb. 1933)

13

24

54%

Department chief of the residence department(Mar. 1933 to Feb. 1937)

103

153

67%

Auditor of the residence department (after
retirement age, from Mar. 1937), Subsection
chief: Asatarō Nakamura

39

65

60%

211

367

57%

Total

44

Shōtarō Morita - Contributor to residential architecture
Shōtarō Morita, who supervised construction of about sixty percent ofhouses in the Catalog, joined the company in 1899 (at age twenty two) after
graduating from Kōshu Gakko. He became a construction chief in 1917, achief of the second construction department after organizational reform in
1927, a vice construction department chief after changes in the management
structure in 1930, a chief of the architecture department after a namerevision in 1932, and the first department chief of the newly-createdresidence department in 1933. He was eligible for retirement in March, 1937,
but his employment was extended and he continued to work as an auditor
until 1940.
Table 2 indicates the changes in Morita’s positions and the number ofhouses in the Catalog in each time period. He was in charge of theconstruction of 211 of 367 houses. After 1927, he oversaw most of theresidential building construction at Shimizu-gumi, as approximately sixty
percent of houses in the Catalog were built under his supervision.
Asatarō Nakamura - Expert of residential architecture skilled in both designand construction
Asatarō Nakamura became the vice chief of the second construction
department in 1927. From that point on, he was involved solely in theconstruction of houses, and managed many projects as an indispensable aideto Shōtarō Morita. After his retirement, he summarized his working
experience at Shimizu-gumi in the book, Kōhon Nakamura Asataro shōdanVol. 1&2 (manuscript of carpenter Asataro Nakamura’s story) 6. In the book,he recounts that he honed his skills as a master carpenter in Hakata before
joining Shimizu-gumi in 1907 (after graduation from the department ofarchitecture at Kuramae Engineering Continuation School at age twenty
three). His experience as a master carpenter explains how he became anexpert of residential architecture who could do both design and construction.
His book also refers to five houses in the Catalog: Second House of Korekiyo
Takahashi (1923, Hayama), Gen’emon Mitsui House (1920, Tokyo), Teikichi
Shimizu House (1926, Tokyo), Motonosuke Mitsui House (1931, Tokyo), andNagayuki Takayama Holiday House (1935, Atami).
He was involved in the construction of fifty six houses in the Catalog,
eight of which still exist: Kōichi Saito Secondary House (1928, Hayama; p.166),
Hideko Fujise Secondary House (1934, Zushi; p.50), Rihee Hyuga Secondary
House (1935, Atami; p.110), Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence (1935, Atami;
p.144), Wakichi Kise Holiday House (木瀬和吉別荘; 1936, Nasu), Kiichirō
Toyoda Holiday House (1936, Atami), Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House(1937, Izunokuni; p.174), and Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House (1937,
Atami; p.156).
45

Jōkichi Fujioka House (1925, Tokyo)

Doctor of Laws Yasushi Hijikata House(1927, Tokyo)

Eigorō Matsumoto House (1936, Tokyo)［Fig.8］ House designed and built by Asatarō Nakamura

Nakamura worked on both design and construction for ten houses,
including Jōkichi Fujioka House (1925, Tokyo), Doctor of Laws Yasushi Hijikata
House (1927, Tokyo), Hiroshi Nomori House (1930, Zushi), and Eigorō
Matsumoto House (1936, Tokyo) (Fig. 8).

46

【Note】
1. Shimizu-ten was damaged by fire four times: Kanda Shinkokuchō branch caught fire in
1880; the house at Nihonbashi Hongokuchō caught fire in 1881; Kanda Shinkokuchō
branch burned down in 1892; and the main branch in Minamisayachō, Kyobashi ward,
was destroyed by fire in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
2. One of the third generation of graduates from the department of architecture, Imperial
College of Engineering. The title of chief architect (Gishi-chō) did not exist at that time.
3. The company applied the “construction chief system”, which appointed construction
chief (kōji-chō), construction manager (kōji shunin), field manager (genba shunin), andfield staff (genba kakariin). Authority and responsibility were transferred to theappointed construction chief, and the management and operation of the construction
site, which was a source of profit, were entrusted to the chief. These reforms meant
strong authority was granted to construction chiefs. For example, each construction
chief had authority over the following operations: various activities and surveys before
acquisition of the job; nomination for construction; integration and estimation; tender;
contract; purchase of materials and arrangement of labor; and completion of
construction and delivery.
4. i. A manager system was abandoned and executive officers exercised control over all
areas; ii. Construction division was newly established, the location subdivision chief(basho gakari) was renamed construction chief (kōji chō), and the responsibility andauthority of construction chief were extended to increase their capabilities; iii. The
drafting room was positioned as a design division, and authority of the chief architect
was restricted to inside the design division; iv. Survey subdivision (to survey any
problems and good practices for each construction project in terms of the purchase ofmaterials, labor, construction documents) and workshop subdivision (to manage the
Fukagawa Workshop) were newly established; v. The accountant team wasrestructured into an accounting subdivision. (Shimizu kensetsu nihyakunen [Twohundred years of Shimizu Corporation], the volume about management, p.93)
5. According to the roster of the design division, owned by Hanzo Matsuda, former
employee of Shimizu Corporation, Andō joined the company in 1917. Ten’in daichō(Personnel register) owned by Shimizu Corporation says he joined in 1918.
6. Kōhon Nakamura Asataro shōdan Vol. 1 & 2 (Manuscript of carpenter Asataro
Nakamura’s story) is excerpts taken from Shōdan, his serial publication in The Daily
Engineering & Construction News. The excerpts included 76 articles from 150 articles,
beginning with the first issue in 1952. Shōdan was based on Nakamura Asataro kō(Writings of Asataro Nakamura), a story of his experiences, compiled over almost ten
years beginning in 1943. In a chapter of the manuscript titled Mukashi Gatari(Reminiscence), he mentions he had training as a carpenter before going to Tokyo:“...as the town was called Shin-daiku-cho (new carpenter town), there was a town filledwith master carpenters of the so-called palace carpenter. In fact, there were a lot ofskillful carpenters who had good kanetsubo (drafting) technique. I was born in such a
town, and started working at a construction site during the housing boom just after theFirst Sino-Japanese War. I worked as a laborer during the day, and learned drafting fromsenior carpenters at night. I was enthusiastic about the training. Whenever we met, we
had discussions. Whenever we had questions, we solved it by making a model. We
repeated that process. ...” (translation of the original text)47

【Sources】
Table 1:
Kōji shunkō hōkokusho [Construction completion report], Sekkei tosho[Architectural drawings], Sekkeibu no haiin-hyō [Roster of the design
department], etc.
Table 2:
Bumon no jinji rireki [Staff allocation chart], Kōji shunkō hōkokusho[Construction completion report]
Fig. 1:Shi Shimizu kōji rireki sho [Extract of the construction record of the Shimizugumi Limited Partnership Company], Kōji keireki genpon [Original copy of
construction record], etc.
Fig. 2:
Shimizu-kata kenchiku ie-no-shashin set 1/2 [Shimizu-kata’s architecture photos of houses] and Shimizu-kata kenchiku kaoku satsuei [Photos of
Shimizu-kata’s architecture and residence]
Fig. 3:
Shashi Shiryō [Corporate history materials], courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 4, 5: Shimizu-gumi gijutsu-bu sekkei kenchiku sakuhin shū [Collection of design
works by the engineering division of Shimizu-gumi]
Fig 6 to 8: Senzen kōji kiroku shashin [Photographic record of constructions in the prewar period], courtesy of Shimizu Corporation48

Chapter 2
Houses that Connect Feelings［Legend］ (Common for Chapters 2 through 5)- The “Catalog” referred to in the text and figures refers to the book,Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog),
vol. 1&2.
- In the “Process of inheritance” table, the “present” year indicates the year
we conducted the survey.
- The number for the “Location” of each summary table corresponds to thenumber on the “List of existing houses” (p.3 to p.7).
- The “Plot Area” in each summary table shows the maximum plot area ofthe house at the time of the first owner.
- The “Floor Area” in each summary table shows the area reported in theCatalog and does not include any extension or renovation conducted
afterwards; an annotation will denote otherwise.
49

2-1

Hideko Fujise Secondary House

A secondary house on a hill in Zushi: a marriage of Japanese styleand Western style
Yoshiko Mizunuma［Fig. 1］ Northfaçade (present)［Fig. 2］ North façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Living/dining room andbalcony (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Living/dining room andbalcony (present)50

Process of inheritance1934 (completion)

Hideko Fujise
after WWII : temporary requisition
inherit
1952
Fujise family↓
1952
Matsuo Kōgyō↓
1959
Yoshitarō Wakimura↓
1998
Wakimura family↓
1999
Ministry of Finance↓2007 to present (2018) Zushi City
LocationZushi City (Kanagawa) - #27

Completion

19331

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Andō)

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Secondary house → Public facility

Plot Area

1780 tsubo (5884 sq. m)

Floor Area

90 tsubo (297 sq. m)2

Cultural Property
Designation
Public Access

Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, Structure ofLandscape Importance for Zushi
Open to the Public (only on designated days)【Notes】
1. The report of Shimizu-gumi, Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction completion report),
states it is 1934.
2. The report of Shimizu-gumi, Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction completion report),
states it is 117 tsubo (386 sq. m). The initial drawing says 100 tsubo (330 sq. m.).

51

Zushi - holiday house area at Shonan
Hideko Fujise Secondary House was built in Sakurayama, Zushi, in 1934.
Since the Meiji period, many secondary holiday houses had been built in the
Sakurayama area of Zushi. Iesato Tokugawa, Iichirō Tokutomi, and Kintarō
Hattori had their holiday houses in this neighborhood. Hideko Fujise
Secondary House was located near the western border of Sakurayama,
halfway up a small hill overlooking Sagami Bay. Stunning views of Enoshima
and Mt. Fuji can be seen from the south-west. Currently, Hideko Fujise
Secondary House is a facility in Roka Memorial Park. The park is named for
Roka Tokutomi, who wrote his book Hototogisu (Lesser cuckoo) around Zushi
in 1900, which made the area famous.
Hideko Fujise was the wife of Masajirō Fujise, who worked at Mitsui & Co.,
Ltd. The secondary house was built after Masajirō died, with Hideko as theclient. In order for the house to face Sagami Bay on the southwest, itsalignment slightly leans to the west from the exact south. The main block(hereafter referred to as “the living-room block”) is long in the east-west
direction and houses a living/dining room. Two other blocks are attached tothe side of the block: a block on the southeast containing a tea room (“thetea-room block”); and a block on the northeast with a kitchen and a maid’s
room (“the kitchen block”) (Fig. 7).
The largest of the three blocks, the living-room block is a two-storied
block with a hip roof and pantile roofing. A living/dining room, a veranda,
and an eight-tatami-mat living room are on the first floor, with a guest roomon the second floor.(Names for rooms are taken from the initial drawings
owned by Shimizu Corporation. ) The entrance is also in the living-room block.
A tatami-covered corridor connects the entrance hall to the eight-tatami-mat
living room, which Hideko used as her daily living space.
The living/dining room is an expansive room with no wall on the south,
adjoining the veranda with glass doors on three sides. This room has a woodfloor, ookabe style (i.e. hiding pillars) walls, and three round windows with
opaque white stained glass in the transom window to the veranda (Fig. 3, 4).
Its ceiling is mainly a saobuchi-tenjo (battened ceiling) of logs with bark,
while the last ninety centimeters on the south ceiling were a kakekomi-tenjo(ceiling composed as an extension of eaves). Logs of camellia and cherry areused with bark at many points, such as in a wing wall column and at the endof the hanging wall. The north side of the room features a fireplace covered
with tiles, with stained glass to the upper left of the fireplace and display
shelves to the right (Fig. 5). The shelves on the service room side of thedining space are also unique. There is a partial hanging wall in front of it, andthe right shelves have doors in a check pattern (Fig. 6). Japanese ornamental
elements are skillfully incorporated in the Western room using chairs, yet theinterior is fanciful without being excessive. It is a refined, well-balanced
space combining Japanese and Western styles.
52On the second floor, an iribuchi-en (internal veranda) borders the guest
room and the adjoining room. A comb-shaped transom window made ofpaulownia divides the two rooms, and the toko-bashira (pillar of thedecorative alcove) is also made of paulownia (Fig. 8). Large openings facing
two directions allow one to view the surrounding scenery (Fig. 9). In thespare room on the east side of the second floor there is a hiro-en (wideveranda), a shoin (small desk) with a yoshino mado (a round window), and ashitaji-mado (window with lattice wall frame) at the boundary to the hiro-en(Fig. 10).

［Fig. 5］ Fireplace in the living/dining
room, veranda on the left (present)［Fig. 6］ Shelves on the east wall of
the dining space［Fig. 7］ Plan of Hideko Fujise Secondary House (photo taken just after completion, fromthe Catalog, room names and block names added afterwards)

53

［Fig. 8］ Guest room (foreground)and adjoining room on the second
floor (present)［Fig. 9］ Iribuchi-en (internal veranda)of the guest room on the second floor［Fig. 10］ Spare room on the second
floor (present)［Fig. 11］ Tea room (present)［Fig. 12］ West façade (present)［Fig. 13］ North façade (present)

The tea-room block is a single-storied block with a hip roof and pantile
roofing, and it originally had a dobisashi (eaves supported by columns on anearthen floor) with copper roofing. This block consists of “ocha-no-ma”, aeight-tatami-mat tea room with a toko (decorative alcove), and “otsugi-noma”, a five-tatami-mat adjoining room with a closet. A sunken hearth
indicates that the tea room was clearly meant as a space for tea ceremony.
The room contains Sukiya-style design elements, such as a funazoko-tenjo (aceiling with equal sloping sides) with a cattail mat, and decorative rafters ofwhite bamboo (Fig. 11).

54

The kitchen block is a single-storied block with a hip roof and pantile
roofing. The kitchen is a room of about eight-tatami-mat area, with ample
storage space and a skylight. The kitchen block also includes an eight-tatamimat maid’s room and a four-tatami-mat maid’s room. These rooms areequipped with their own sturdy amenities, such as a private entrance, andseparate washing, bathing, and toilet facilities.
The façade is basically Japanese style with some Western elements. Theveranda on the western side of the living-room block features two roundwindows on the gable end. Wooden vertical siding panels are used on thelower exterior wall (Fig. 12). The north façade with the entrance has aninteresting and unique design. The plastered square fireplace chimney canbe seen on the exterior wall, which is made of the clapboards with battens.
Curiously, the chimney extends above the roof of the second floor and istopped by a tiled gable roof (Fig. 13).
Western and Japanese styles are mixed and merged in this house. It is
misleading to simply label both the interior and exterior either solely
Japanese style or solely Western style.

The Poet Fujise Hideko
The layout of the blocks extending in three directions is a consequence ofmaking use of the irregular shape of the plot. Hideko Fujise was a poet and afollower of Nobutsuna Sasaki. A poem in her 1933 collection Tsuki no
Shitakage reveals that she discussed the layout of the house with engineers
at Shimizu-gumi: “muragie no / yuki nokoru niwa ni / ezu hiroge / gisira tokataru / ieno muki nado” (melt in patches / at the garden with remaining
snow / open a plan / talk with engineer / alignment of the house).
Her husband Masajirō joined trading company Mitsui & Co., Ltd, after
graduating from Hitotsubashi University. After working overseas in Hong
Kong, Shanghai, and London, he served as an executive director of Mitsui &Co., Ltd. and a president of Toyo Cotton Co. He died in 1927 while only in his
50s.
Hideko was also a master of tea ceremony. Her poem collection and travel
journal indicate she had interacted with so-called “sukisha” (connoisseur) of
Mitsui.3 Inspired by her experiences living abroad with her husband and herunderstanding of Japanese traditional culture, the house undertakes thenovel challenge of incorporating Japanese design into a Western style livingroom. As a result, the house has both the openness befitting a seaside
holiday home and the harmony of Japanese style and Western style in calm
coexistence.

55

Of course, the skill of its architect should be mentioned as well. The
architect was Kihachiro Ando from the design department of the Shimizugumi main branch. Ando joined Shimizu-gumi after graduating from Tokyo
University of the Arts, and designed many houses. He was adept at creating
the light sukiya-style design.

The House that Captivated Yoshitarō Wakimura
Fujise House was temporarily requisitioned by the US forces after WorldWar Two. It became difficult for Hideko to sustain this secondary house inher elder years, so the house was sold to Matsuo Kogyo Co., Ltd. in 1952. The
house was purchased next in 1959 by Yoshitarō Wakimura, a friend of
Hideko’s who lived near the house.
Yoshitarō Wakimura was a renowned economist, a professor of the
University of Tokyo, and the 20th president of the Japan Academy. As an
associate professor he studied in London, and after a hiatus from academia
during the Second World War, returned to the University of Tokyo. Yoshitarō
Wakimura is generally regarded as a strong-willed economist, but hiscollection of essays, Shumi no kachi (Value of hobbies), published by Iwanami
Shinsho in 1967, reveals his refined interests. The essays focus on a
discussion of unique items and the economic factor of scarcity value as it
pertains to them, but its wide range of topics, including “economy of wine”
and “merchant of artworks”, indicates that the author had various hobbies
and a love of art and beauty. Wakimura collected many pieces of art, most ofwhich were bequeathed to the Tanabe City Museum of Art upon his death. It
is not surprising that Fujise House won the favor of such an aesthete, northat Wakimura sought to acquire the house.
After the acquisition, Wakimura kept the building true to its original form,
with the exception of the construction of a reinforced concrete book vault on
the east side of the tea-room block. Wakimura resided in the house from1959 until his death in 1997 at the age of ninety six. After his death, Hideko
Fujise Secondary House faced a bleak future. It was used for payment-in-kindof inheritance tax and transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

［Fig. 14］ New gate built after
acquisition by Zushi city (present)

56［Fig. 15］ Cleaning by volunteers(present)

Passion of Zushi City Residents
With the Kanagawa Prefecture Modern Architecture Survey, begun in1997, Hideko Fujise Secondary House became renowned as an example ofprecious modern Japanese architecture remaining in Zushi.4 After thepayment-in-kind, a growing number of residents wanted to keep the housein the city. In 2007, a petition to the city council was unanimously accepted.
Many of the petitioners were also involved in the establishment of“machizukuri kihon keikaku” (basic plan for participatory urban planning),
which was carried out through public participation at that time in the city.
The concerned residents held that Hideko Fujise Secondary House was andremains indispensable for Zushi city.
Consequently, Zushi city acquired Fujise Secondary House, designated it
as a Structure of Landscape Importance for Zushi, and repurposed the house
as a facility in Roka Memorial Park. Since the acquisition, the city has madevarious repairs and built a new entrance gate for a different road accesspoint.
However, due to its location in a quiet residential area, the house has notbeen open to the public for a long time. As of 2017, it is only open one day
per year, and it is not presently clear how the house will be utilized. The
house and its garden are well maintained thanks to monthly cleaning andventilation by local volunteers. Despite the increasing age of the community,
volunteers continue to care for Hideko Fujise Secondary House for the
purpose of their own pleasure, and to preserve the original scenery of Zushi
for future generations.
This grand house, a harmonious marriage of Japanese style and Western
style, should be also used more effectively as a place to learn the culture ofdwellings.
【Notes】
3. Her works include a travel journal, Kumo no yukue (1918), and poem collections,
Yamamado (1942) and Tsuki no shitakage (1933). These are owned by the family of
Hideko Fujise.
4. From Kanagawa-ken no kindai wafu kenchiku (Modern Japanese architecture in
Kanagawa Prefecture), edited by the cultural property division, lifelong study
department, Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education, 2000.
【References】
1. Zushi-shi shi, betsu-hen 2 [History of Zushi city, separate edition 2], Zushi city, 1995
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8-15:
Fig. 2, 4, 7:

Photographs taken by the author
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture
catalog], vol. 2, 1939

57

Analysis

Exploring the Future of the Public-Private
Partnership
To inherit a historical building, a government often acquires a houseowned by an individual. In most cases, the building is donated to thegovernment and the plot is often purchased by the government. When it’sdifficult for the government to purchase the plot, the building is rebuilt at
another location and preserved. In the case of Hideko Fujise Secondary
House, the building and its plot were initially transferred to the central
government due to payment-in-kind of inheritance tax, then Zushi citypurchased both building and plot. When a government purchases a building,
the key consideration is how to share “the value” of the building amongpeople, which includes the contribution of the building to the area. The mostunfortunate outcome would be if the building was not used.
Twelve years have passed since the city acquired the Hideko Fujise
Secondary House, the city department responsible for public parks has been
maintaining the building. It has not yet been decided how best to utilize thebuilding, so all maintenance of the building is temporary and responsive.
Budget restraints also dictate what maintenance can be done. For example,
the dobisashi (eaves supported by columns on an earthen floor) of the tearoom block originally had copper roofing, but for now the roofing has been
replaced by corrugated steel. The secondary house is in relatively goodcondition, since it was occupied most of the time. It is essential that steps
are taken toward appropriate utilization of the building, while at the sametime continuing temporary repairs.
In the Shonan area, a building and its plot are often donated tomunicipalities. There are many examples, especially in Kamakura: Maeda
Family Secondary House (present Kamakura Museum of Literature), Kawakita
House (present Kamakura City Kawakita Film Museum), Umeko MurakamiHouse, Senko Sansō, and Nobuko Yoshiya House. Previous residents who
loved the Shonan area sustained these houses through their diligent efforts,
and they have asked us how present day people can utilize and inherit thebuildings effectively. However, it costs a lot of money to preserve a building.
All over Japan, more and more houses with value as cultural properties are
now owned by municipalities. The important issue is who should take care ofthese buildings and how to do that.

58

The Murakami House in Nikaidō, Kamakura, is a house of 420 squaremeter floor areas that Umeko Murakami donated to Kamakura City in 2016
(Fig. 1, 2). This house, which features a noh stage and a tea room, is locatedin the category 1 low-rise exclusive residential district, so options for how toutilize this house are consequently limited. Kamakura City decided to include
the Murakami House in a larger civic project. In 2018, the city was selectedby the central government to be the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
future city and the SDGs model project, and the city proposed thepreservation and utilization of the Murakami House as a model project toprove itself to be a sustainable city.
The city conducted aseismic reinforcement, funded by a subsidy from thecentral government, then invited public proposals to select a utilization
project operator. The operator carried out the minimum required
refurbishment for preservation and utilization, and now rents the space forcorporate training. The space is also used by the local community. While
Murakami House is a unique case, and it is too early to judge if it is successful,
this is a noteworthy response to the challenge of combining the special“intensity” of Kamakura and the public-private partnership system.
Revision of the Cultural Property Protection Law made in 2019 is
supposed to promote the utilization of historical buildings. Effective systems
should be used wisely and buildings conveying local history and culture
should be utilized through collaboration of the public and the private sector.
The existence and efforts of people with local attachments are essential to
the survival of a city.
(Yoshiko Mizunuma)［Fig. 1］ Façade of Murakami House［Fig. 2］ Noh stage of Murakami House【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2: Photographs taken by the author

59

2-2

Ehrismann Residence

Raymond architecture restored in a park setting
Yoshiko Mizunuma［Fig. 1］ Southwest
façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Front façade (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Living/dining room
(photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Living/dining room (present)60

Process of inheritance1926 (completion)

F. Ehrismann↓
Mary Laffin Cook↓
Hikawa Shōji↓
Yokohama City↓
disassembly↓
Restored in Motomachi Park

1935
1982
1982

1990
Location

Yokohama City (Kanagawa) - #23

Completion

1926

Architect

Raymond Architectural Design Office (Antonin Raymond)

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

House → Public facility in a park

Plot Area

1500 tsubo (4959 sq. m)

Floor Area

140 tsubo (462 sq. m, including the Japanese building)

Cultural Property
Designation
Public AccessYokohama City Certified Historical Building
Open to the PublicEhrismann and Raymond
Ehrismann Residence is located in Motomachi Park, almost at the centerof Yamate Hondōri street. People are already familiar with the scenery in thisarea, while it was previously just a plot covered by greenery.
Ehrismann Residence was originally built as the residence of Fritz
Ehrismann on the plot of Yamate 127, about one kilometer away from
Motomachi Park. A Swiss native, Ehrismann came to Japan in 1888 andworked at a large trading company, Siber Hegner & Co. He became amanager at the company in 1917, and died in 1940 in Yokohama. His grave isin The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery.

61

Ehrismann took up residence at Yamate 127 before the Kanto Great
Earthquake. The Yamate district was severely damaged by the huge
earthquake, with most of the houses in the district burned and destroyed by
the disaster. After the destruction of Yamate 127, Ehrismann chose Antonin
Raymond for design of his new home. Raymond famously came to Japan
with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1919. In 1921, he started his own design firm, theAmerican Architectural and Engineering Company, with L. W. Slack.
According to the Raymond architecture catalog in Raymond’s book,
Watashi to Nihon kenchiku (Me and Japanese architecture, 1967), he
designed many buildings in Yokohama. He designed personal houses such as
Paul Messer House (1922), John Richard Geary House (1922), Owstone
House (1924), Nipkow House (1924), and H. T. Stapleton House (1928, in theCatalog) He also designed company houses such as Rising Sun Oil Company
Houses (1927-1929). Siber Hegner & Co. Building (1924) and Warehouse(1925) were also designed by Raymond.1 It seems quite fitting that Raymondwould design a house for Ehrismann. Ehrismann lived in the house until 1926,
when he quit Siber Hegner & Co. and started his own company.
After Ehrismann and his wife Shima Ishikawa vacated the house, Miyo
Ishii, the wife of Thomas Melvin Laffin and a resident of the Yamate district,resided in the house after the death of her husband in 1931. Miyo Ishii lived
in the house with her eldest daughter, Mary Laffin Cook.2 Miyo Ishii died in
1959, and Mary Laffin Cook died in 1978, upon which there were no
surviving relatives to inherit Ehrismann Residence. Ultimately, the building
and its plot were sold to a real estate agency in 1982. The building was
eventually disassembled and preserved by Yokohama City, and finally
reassembled and restored in Motomachi Park in 1990.

Ehrismann Residence as a work of Raymond
Ehrismann Residence was designed by Raymond, but no related material
has been found in the records of Raymond Architectural Design Office. The
only evidence of how the building appeared just after completion are
pictures found in the Jūtaku kenchiku zushū and the Kōji sekō hōkokusho(Construction completion report) of Shimizu-gumi. Interestingly, thecompletion report suggests that some Japanese features were incorporated
into interior finishes of the Western building. The finish of the internal walls
was described as “Shikkui (Japanese lime plaster) with kuzufu (arrowroot
cloth) and bashōfu (abaca cloth)”.

62

Originally, Ehrismann Residence consisted of a Western building and aJapanese building. The Western building has two stories with a partial
basement and a hip roof. The Japanese building was a single-storied building
with a hip roof. The Japanese building was demolished before thedisassembly of the Western building, and information available about thebuilding is limited. However, from the foundation of the building and photos
in the Catalog (Fig. 5), it was established that the Japanese building had afloor area of about one hundred square meters and was attached to thenortheastern side of the Western building. A Japanese room with toko
(decorative alcove), tana (decorative shelf), and a separate entrance werefeatures of the building (Fig. 6). Ehrismann’s wife was Japanese, and thebuilding was intended for her living space. After the Meiji period, it was not
unusual to find houses with both a Japanese building and a Western building,but that juxtaposition had different meaning in a house for a non-Japaneseclient.
The original plan of the Western building shows its compact and efficient
floor plan. On the first floor, a 2.5-meter-wide corridor next to the entrance
hall ran in the north-south direction. A reception room was situated at thesouthwest corner, and a living/dining room and a sunroom were located on
the east side (Fig. 3, 4, 7). The second floor had a similar north-south corridor
connecting three rooms and a bathroom. The basement contained a boiler
room and liquor storage space.
Exterior walls are finished with siding and paint, but the walls of the firststory are made of vertical board and batten and the second story walls are
German lap siding. Its façade design highlights horizontal lines with thehorizontal components of the boundary of the first and the second story andthe balcony handrail. The original roof was a hip roof with slate roofing.
Although the house has dormer windows and a chimney, it is relatively
simple in comparison to other Western houses in the Yamate district. A
fireplace and a staircase are notable features of the interior. The fireplace’s
geometrical decoration was inspired by Czech Cubism (Fig. 8), and the design
around the staircase recalls the style of Frank Lloyd Wright (Fig. 9). Thesefeatures are interesting as evidence of Raymond's creative process, his
movement away from the influence of Wright, and the evolution of his own
distinct style. The vertical sliding windows look quite modern due to theirwider proportions and undivided single glass panels (Fig. 3, 4).

63

［Fig. 5］ Western building andJapanese building (photo taken
just after completion)［Fig. 6］ Fig. 6 Original Japaneseroom (photo taken just after
completion)［Fig. 7］ “Drawings from onsite measurement before disassembly” from Ehrismann
Residence Relocation and Restoration Project Report (English description added bytranslator.)［Fig. 9］ Staircase(present): It
features the
Wright-style
designhighlighting
horizontal lines［Fig. 10］Disassembly work

［Fig. 8］ Fireplace (present): The
design around the lighting
fixtures reflects the influence ofCzech Cubism.
64

The Fate of Ehrismann Residence and a Warning for the Future
Ehrismann Residence was not widely known because it was located far
from Yamate Hondōri street and was concealed from the fronting road bysurrounding trees. Nor was it included in the major catalog of architecture in
Japan, Nihon kindai kenchiku sōran (Japanese modern architecture catalog,
Architectural Institute of Japan, 1980).
In early July of 1982, Takeyoshi Hori, a researcher in the Yokohama
Archives of History, received a report from a local resident that Ehrismann
Residence was likely to be demolished to make way for an apartment. At thattime, Rekishi wo ikashita machizukuri yōkō (Guideline for historically inspired
participatory urban development) was not yet established in Yokohama City,and no general survey had been conducted in the Yamate district.3 It wasdifficult to evaluate a building not included in the Nihon kindai kenchiku
sōran. Ehrismann Residence did not look like a typical Western building, inthat it was less decorative and more modern. It also suffered from neglectand damage during a long period of vacancy before the city took notice.
For the city to decide preservation of the building, it was necessary tolocate the building in the environs of other Western buildings in the Yamate
district. City officers quickly conducted onsite surveys of Western buildings in
the Yamate district and the adjoining Honmoku district. As a result, it was
discovered that Ehrismann Residence was a prominent Western building,and that the house was designed by Raymond. Therefore, the city decided topreserve the house. This decision was reached only a month after the reportof impending demolition.
Plans for the apartment were already underway. The Japanese building
had been demolished, and the start date of construction was nearing. After
negotiation with the landowner, both parties agreed that Yokohama City
would preserve components of the building. Disassembly and survey for thepreservation took approximately two months (Fig. 10).
Eight years later, in 1990, Ehrismann Residence was restored in
Motomachi Park along Yamate Hondōri street. After some further
renovations to the original form of the building it became a local museum.
The entrance was widened, the partition between two rooms on the eastside of the second floor was removed to make a bigger exhibition room, andthe basement was expanded to serve as a hall.

65

Yokohama City was known as a pioneer of “historically inspired
participatory urban development”, and Ehrismann Residence is one of thepreserved houses from the early stage of the project. Ingenious collaborationand quick action led to the successful preservation of the house. This work ofarchitecture is not only important as a work of Raymond, but also as a lesson
for the future preservation of historical buildings.

【Notes】
1. New headquarters of Siber Hegner & Co. was designed by Jay Herbert Morgan andbuilt in Yokohama in 1935.
2. J. E. Laffin, younger brother of Mary, was the owner of Bluff No. 111 designed by Jay
Herbert Morgan.
3. After this time, from the 1984 fiscal year to the 1985 fiscal year, a survey of remaining
Western buildings in the Yamate district and their surrounding environment and asurvey for preservation measures were conducted. (Yokohama Yamate: Yokohama
Yamate yōkan-gun hozon taisaku chōsa hōkokusho [Yokohama Yamate: report on
Yokohama Yamate Western buildings and their preservation], Yokohama City Board of
Education, 1987)【References】
1. Erisuman-tei ichiku fukugen jigyō hōkokusho [Ehrismann Residence relocation andrestoration project report], Yokohama City, 1991
2. Antonin Raymond, Watashi to nihon kenchiku [Me and Japanese architecture], SD
Books 17, Kajima Institute Publishing, 1967
3. Michiko Nakanishi, “Ehrismann tei ni sundeita hito” [Residents of Ehrismann
Residence], Watashino Yokohama [My sweet yokohama], Yokohama-gaku Renraku
Kaigi 10th Anniversary Magazine Editorial Committee, 2001
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3: Provided by Yokohama Greenery Foundation
Fig. 2, 4: Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog), vol. 1,
1935
Fig. 5, 6: Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 7, 10: From Erisuman-tei ichiku fukugen jigyō hōkokusho [Ehrismann Residence
relocation and restoration project report], Yokohama City, 1991
Fig. 8, 9: Photographs taken by author

66

Tips to Preserve Buildings I

Rekishi wo Ikashita Machizukuri Yōkō
(Guideline for Historically Inspired
Participatory Urban Development) in
Yokohama City and Preservation of Historical
Buildings

Ehrismann Residence is a Yokohama City Certified Historical Building.
Yokohama City advocates the practice of machizukuri (participatory urban
development) informed by the city’s history, and has undertaken thechallenge of preservation and utilization of historical buildings earlier thanother municipalities.
Yokohama City started using history for machizukuri around 1977. Initialresearch was conducted from 1977 to 1979 on the formative history of thecity, and the findings were summarized in the 1981 book Minato-machi
Yokohama no toshi keisei-shi (Development history of the port city
Yokohama). From 1983 to 1984, a survey of historical heritage was entrusted
to the Architectural Institute of Japan, and Yokohamashi Rekishiteki Kankyō
Hozen Seibi Kōsō (Yokohama City’s concept for preservation andmanagement of the historical environment) was created based on thefindings. Yokohama City acquired buildings gradually during the research
periods, such as the former British Consulate (present Yokohama Archives ofHistory) in 1979 and Ōkura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture in 1981.
The successful preservation of components of the Ehrismann Residence wascompleted in 1982.
Sompo Japan Insurance
Yokohama Bashamichi Building(former Kawasaki Bank
Yokohama Branch Building)67The urban areas of the city were also developing during these periods ofhistorical research. In 1986, the demolition plan for Nihon Kasai Kaijō
Yokohama Building was announced. The building, the former Kawasaki Bank
Yokohama Branch, was an important part of the historical landscape ofBashamichi district. A National Important Cultural Property, it was built in1900 and situated next to the former Yokohama Specie Bank Headquarters
Building (present Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History). Not
surprisingly, there was an outcry in response to the demolition plan. In 1988,
Yokohama City created a new system in reaction to this series of events, thesystem of Rekishi wo Ikashita Machizukuri Yōkō (Guideline for historicallyinspired participatory urban development). The Yokohama City Ordinance for
the Protection of Cultural Properties was also enacted in 1988, and these
two enactments began working in concert as “two wheels of the cart”.

Rekishi wo Ikashita Machizukuri Yōkō (Guideline for Historically Inspired
Participatory Urban Development)
Per the guidelines of Yokohama City, after a historical building withlandscape value is identified, and with the consent of its owner, it is listed asa Yokohama City Registered Historical Building. The city undertakes amaintenance contract for registered buildings, and shoulders a portion ofmaintenance costs, if needed. In addition, registered buildings withoutstanding landscape value are listed as Certified Historical Buildings. In
order for the building to be certified, a plan for maintenance and utilizationis required to clarify the protected parts of the building and use of the plot.
A unique aspect of this system is the substantial subsidies involved(Fig. 1).
The most distinctive feature of projects under these guidelines is that eachbuilding is evaluated based on the townscape, unlike the Cultural Propertysystem. Yet the logic of this system of evaluation has been questioned. The
system determined that some buildings were preserved as replicas, andsome buildings were preserved only for their facades and face of thetownscape. However, it is also true that the Cultural Property system isinadequate for the preservation of many modern buildings in Yokohama.
Therefore, the Certified Historical building system plays a significant role.
Recently, a new system, Rekishi-teki Kenzobutu Renovation Chūkan Shien
Josei (Supportive subsidy for renovation of historical buildings), wasestablished to subsidize interior renovation for utilization. Table 2 lists thenumber of registered buildings and certified buildings in June 2019.

68Some of the certified Western buildings are owned by individuals. Bluff
No. 89-8, certified in 2006, is one of only a few remaining municipal houses
for foreigners built by Yokohama City after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Its
owner sought to utilize the building while respecting its history. The subsidy
from certification enabled the owner to restore the façade to near-originalform and reinvent the building as a rental house.
A persistent issue with the certification system is how to approach thematter of inheritance of buildings. If these Registered or Certified Historical
Buildings are approved to be equivalent to National Tangible Cultural
Properties, some benefit may arise from inheritance as well.
［Table 1］ Summary of subsidies based on the Yokohama City Guideline for Historically
Inspired Participatory Urban Development
Registered Historical Building
Subsidy Rate

Certified Historical Building

Limit (yen)Subsidy Rate

Survey/Design

1/3

Façade preservation

1/3

Seismic retrofit

1/3

Landscape preservation

1/3

2M

2/3

3M

1/3

2M

2/3

3M

ー

150K (yearly)ー

300K (yearly)ー

50K (yearly)ー

300K (yearly)

Disaster prevention
facility
MaintenanceNight landscapemaintenance

1M
Wooden 5M
Not wooden 30M
Wooden 2M
Not wooden 10M

Supportive Subsidy for Renovation ofSubsidy Rate 1/2

Historical Buildings

Limit 5M yen (yearly)

69

2/3

Limit

2/3

2/3

2M
Wooden 10M
Not wooden 60M
Wooden 3M
Not wooden 20M

［Table 2］ The number of registered or certified buildings based on the Yokohama City
Guideline for Historically Inspired Participatory Urban Development （As of June 2019 ）Type

Registered

Certified

Shrine/Temple

23

0

Old folklore house

28

14

54

32

38

22

7

2

56

26

1

0

207

96

Modern architecture(except Westernhouse)
Western house
Modern Japanesearchitecture
Public works andindustrial remnant
Late modern
architecture
Total

Bluff No. 89-8: Before restoration (left) and after restoration (right)

Consultation system of YOKOHAMA HERITAGE
Yokohama Rekishi Isan Chōsakai (Yokohama historical heritage researchcommittee), or YOKOHAMA HERITAGE, is an organization created as an
executor of the historically inspired participatory urban development of
Yokohama City. The organization conducts many projects such as surveys ofhistorical buildings to increase awareness of the value of historical properties,
and the organization has recently started a consultation project.

70

The consultation project is intended to support people who want toprotect historical buildings. According to the organization’s website, thefollowing queries are accepted from property owners: “I want to know thehistorical value of my old house”; “I want to know how to sustain thebuilding after inheritance”; and “I want to find a reliable craftsman who can
repair a historical building”. Owners receive individual responses. The project
has already achieved some successes, such as consultation between
YOKOHAMA HERITAGE and the owner of Jujirō Ichihara House in Kohoku
Ward, Yokohama. Following the consultation, the house was surveyed by
Seizo Uchida Laboratory of Kanagawa University and listed as a Certified
Historical Building in 2018. The organization also accepts consultations forbuildings outside of Yokohama City. Further development of this system isadvantageous and desirable.
Façade of former Jujirō Ichihara
House - Consultation between
its owner and YOKOHAMAHERITAGE led to approval as a
Certified Historical Building.

Buildings and Structures of Landscape Importance for Kamakura City
Kamakura City, one of the old Japanese capitals, is another municipality
with a system to preserve historical buildings based on landscape evaluation.
Kamakura City has many cultural properties, yet there is not adequate
protection for modern buildings under the cultural property system. As aresult, in 1990 the city established Kamakura-shi Yōfu Kenchikubutu no
Hozon no tame no Yōkō (Guideline for preservation of Western buildings in
Kamakura City). In 1996, Kamakura-shi Toshi Keikan Jorei (Kamakura City
urban landscape ordinance) was enacted. This ordinance designates,
preserves, and utilizes Building etc. of Landscape Importance, which includes
Japanese buildings and structures such as gates and walls, as well as Westernbuildings. To date, thirty four buildings and structures have been designated,with two removed due to demolition.

71

In Kamakura City, a certain portion of repair costs and renovation costs
are subsidized (fifty percent of costs are covered, up to three million yen)
when deemed to be necessary for preservation and utilization. In responseto the recent demolition of designated structures, the city acknowledged theimportance of follow-up after designation. In the interest of rebuilding
strong relationships with owners, the city has begun discussions with themconcerning necessary support. Some structures among designated Buildings
etc. of Landscape Importance for Kamakura are also registered as National
Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Yet despite these efforts, theinheritance of buildings remains a major challenge in a district with high land
prices.
(Yoshiko Mizunuma)【Sources】
Photographs are taken by the author.

72

73

2-3

Kaichirō Nezu Secondary Residence(present Kiun-kaku)

A symbol of Atami, protected by women
Akira Yasuno［Fig. 1］ Building B:
south façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Building B: south façade(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Building B: eaves in frontof the veranda

74

Process of inheritance1919 (completion)
1925

Nobuya Uchida↓Sold
Kaichirō Nezu

1929
1932
1940

Completion of the garden house with bathroom［A］
Completion of the Western-style building［B］
Greenhouse (demolished)

1944

Japan Special Steel Co., Ltd.
↓1947
Haku-un-rō Co., Ltd. [Hyōgorō Sakurai]↓Change of trade name1947
Nihon Kankō Co., Ltd. [Kiun-kaku]↓Sold2000 to present (2018) Atami City
Location

Atami City (Shizuoka) - #36, #37

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Hiroshi Ōtomo)

Plot Area

When owned by Uchida: 931.5 tsubo (3079 sq. m)
When owned by Nezu: 2800 tsubo (9256 sq. m)

Main Purpose
Cultural Property
Designation
Public AccessSecondary Residence → Japanese-style hotel → Cultural facility
Atami City Tangible Cultural Property
Open to the Public■Building ［A］: Garden house with bathroom
Completion

March 1929

Structure

Wood, single story

Floor Area

53 tsubo (175 sq. m)1【Notes】
1. Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction completion report) states it is 45.833 tsubo (151
sq. m).
■Building ［B］: Western-style building at the northwest part of the plot
Completion

1932

Structure

Wood, single story (basement 1 story, attic space 1 story)

Floor Area

93 tsubo (307 sq. m)
75

From a secondary house to a Japanese-style hotel
On the south side of central Atami there is a cultural facility with a vastgarden in the middle of the plot. The building was a secondary house of
Kaichirō Nezu, a former president of Tōbu Railway Co., Ltd. It is commonly
known as Kiun-kaku, the name used during the period in which it was used
as a Japanese-style hotel, and recently the building attracts many tourists. Its
gorgeous interior and delightful garden are early examples of the modern
resort and important historical remnants of Atami.
Yet despite its popularity, the building was once in danger of demolition
due to the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy and the resulting change ofthe economical environment. The large plot in a prime location was targeted
for development as an apartment building. The passion and action of local
women saved the building from the jaws of demolition and redevelopment,
while the achievement of these women was known by few at the time.
The life of the residence started with completion of construction in 1919.
A group of buildings, including two Japanese-style buildings, was built as asecondary residence for Nobuya Uchida, who made his fortune in shipping
and was active in politics. This building was purchased by Kaichirō Nezu, thefirst president of Tobu Railway Co., Ltd., and became his secondary residencein Atami. After acquiring the property, Nezu made alterations such as
extension and renovation of the Japanese-style buildings and expansion of
the plot. Additionally, construction of two Western-style buildings wascompleted in March and July of 1929. Shimizu-gumi handled these twobuildings, the garden house with bathroom and the Western-style building in
the northwest part of the plot. Hiroshi Ōtomo designed both buildings. A
greenhouse was also built in 1940. However, Nezu sold the secondary
residence to Japan Special Steel Co., Ltd. In 1947, Hyōgorō Sakurai, owner of
Haku’un-rou Hotel in Kanazawa, purchased the residence and operated it as
the Japanese-style hotel “Kiun-kaku” beginning in October of the same year.
The hotel operated for decades and was beloved by many famous guests
such as Osamu Dazai. It closed in 1999 and the buildings were put up forauction.

76

Preservation movement by women
When the risk of demolition of the buildings became widely known, agroup of local women immediately started a preservation movement. The
leader of the group, Yoshie Nakajima, was chairperson of the Atami Josei 21
Kaigi (Atami Women 21 Committee) established in 1995. The group
discovered the value of the buildings from watching a TV program featuringarchitectural historian Terunobu Fujimori, and also from listening to thestories of former staff of Kiun-kaku. The women took action to safeguard thebuildings by collecting twenty-six thousand signatures on a petition andnegotiating with the city. The city council was initially deaf to their calls forpreservation. Yet the women persisted, held lecture meetings, and keptpressing the mayor on the value of the buildings. As a result of the women’s
mobilization, the remnants of the buildings were finally acquired by the city
in 2000. In 2002, two Japanese-style buildings built for Uchida, two Westernstyle buildings built for Nezu, and the front gate were designated as Cultural
Properties by the city.
Local women, including Yoshie Nakajima, were also involved as volunteers
in management of the buildings after they were open to the public. They
established the nonprofit organization “Atami Oasis 21” in 2009 with therecommendation of the mayor. In 2012, the organization took over the entire
management through the designated administrator system. As public
facilities cannot operate on a for profit basis, the organization took charge ofserving as voluntary guides for building visitors and nighttime management,
both of which were originally outsourced at the cost of more than several
million yen. The organization’s practical activities contribute a great deal tothe inheritance of architecture. Guiding visitors around the buildings createsa bond between the guides and the space and fosters attachment, which inturn creates opportunity for visitors to inherit the guides’ sentiments. In
order to keep the buildings in good condition, it is important to make small
repairs on a daily basis. The nonprofit organization met with the city andcame up with a strategy to cover the cost of necessary maintenance, despite
the city’s inflexible stand on budget matters. These activities help the citywith securing a budget for the buildings and facilitate a good management
cycle.

77

［Fig. 5］ Building ［A］:
original plan

［Fig. 4］ Building ［A］: south
façade (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 6］ Building ［A］: window framein the veranda, with adze cut finish
on the edge

［Fig. 8］ Building ［A］: reception
room (present)［Fig. 7］ Building ［B］: original plan

［Fig. 9］ Building ［A］: Otoshigake
and Kibana in front of the fireplace(present)78

［Fig. 11］ Building ［A］:
veranda (present)［Fig. 10］ Building ［A］: floor tiles ofthe veranda (present)

Garden house with a bathroom［A］
The garden house with a bathroom, built in 1929, is a wooden building,but the floor of its corridor and Western-style room, as well as the fireplace
and the chimney, seems to be made of reinforced concrete (Fig. 4). Viewed
from the entrance on the west side, the veranda and the reception room areon the south of the middle corridor, while Japanese-style rooms are on thenorth side. The bathroom was at the end of the middle corridor (Fig. 5), but
it was demolished when the street was widened. Only the middle corridor,
the veranda, and the reception room remained. The bathroom was rotatedninety degrees and rebuilt with some reused fixtures and terracotta
decoration. But most of the materials were new, and original details were
not restored.
The two existing Western-style rooms feature Tudor-style-based elements
everywhere, such as in the design of knee braces and doors, adze finish,wood plugs, and hammered-finish metal fittings. Fine adze finish is alsopresent on smooth-looking surfaces and fixtures (Fig. 6).
In contrast, Japanese-style elements are found around the fireplace of thereception room. The short hanging wall above the fireplace is similar to awall of a toko-no-ma (decorative alcove), and the part equivalent to an
otoshigake (bottom end of the short hanging wall) is supported by kibana(Japanese-style architrave used at temples and shrines). Key elements, suchas the otoshigake and the kibana, are highlighted with raden (mother-ofpearl works) in the shape of four playing cards symbols (Fig. 8, 9). As forother Japanese-style elements, the veranda invokes sukiya-style delicacy
with its funazoko-tenjō (sloped ceiling similar to the inside of the boat) andembossed ajiro (wickerwork-like) pattern tiles.

79

The veranda was initially a bright and expansive space. Almost all sides
were open, and sunlight poured in from the skylight through stained glass on
the funazoko-tenjō (Fig. 10, 11). The reception room was also bright, withlarge bay windows on two sides (Fig. 8, 12). Currently, however, the cornersof the veranda have been converted to walls and the skylight has been
sealed, perhaps for structural reasons.
The exterior walls are structurally ōkabe-style walls (walls with hidden
pillars), but are imitated to be shinkabe-style walls (walls with exposed
pillars) with imitation pillars. The fake pillars are obvious, even at projected
corners. The fake pillars just barely cover the corner from both sides, and the
top of the corners does not form a right angle (Fig. 13).

Western-style building at the northwest part of the plot［B］
The Western-style building at the northwest part of the plot, built in 1932,
is comprised of a reception room, a dining room, a veranda, a north corridor,
a connecting corridor to the Japanese-style building built by Nobuya Uchida,and a west entrance hall. While the connecting corridor and the west
entrance hall are of Japanese-style design, drawings of these components
are included in the same series of design, so these two buildings seem tohave been built at the same time (Fig. 7). The earthen floor of the west
entrance was filled, and the west entrance is not functional currently. Yet theconnecting corridor is almost the same as it was originally. Additionally, thisbuilding has a basement inside the large reinforced concrete foundation on
the slope.
The reception room is based on the Tudor style, and is brightened bylarge bay windows facing the east and the south (Fig. 14). A single large
recycled timber is used as a pillar to the right of the fireplace on the northwall, and a striking relief inspired by Indian Buddhism is placed above thefireplace.
The dining room has an ornamental fireplace that used as a space for agas heater (Fig. 15, 16). Although the room has a Western-style parquetry
floor, the interior is mainly assembled with Japanese architectural elements,
such as oriage-gotenjō (coved coffered ceiling), kaerumata (frog-leg-shaped
strut), hiramitsuto (three horizontal wooden brackets), and muntin at ranma(transom window). Some of these details include Chinese style. This uniqueand eclectic blend of Japanese-Western-Chinese styles for the interior of theroom creates an extraordinary atmosphere.

80A veranda on the south face of the dining room helps create a very bright,
expansive and modern space. The entire south side and half of the east side
are glass windows, and the south facing windows boast a view of the large
descending garden. Stained glass covers almost all the ceiling, and sunlightenters from a skylight supported by assembled steel frames (Fig. 17). The
stained glass on the ceiling is echoed in the glass of transom windows, and asimilar color combination is further echoed in the mosaic floor tiles (Fig. 18).
This creates pleasing consistency in the room. To add a further sparkling
detail, broken pieces of the inner part of shells are lined up on the joint ofmarbles placed up to the middle of the wall. The door of this room is also
fashioned in the Tudor style (Fig. 19).
The façade of the Western-style building also has the following Tudor-style
design elements: fake pillars, imitating the shinkabe-style wall finish; thinhandrails near windows with adze finish; and stone panels randomly placedon the reinforced concrete foundation (currently concealed by vegetation).
The Japanese-style roof is tiled with ocher Taizan Tiles, and its gentle lookstrangely compliments the Tudor-style design.

［Fig. 12］ Building ［A］: reception
room (front) and veranda (back)(photo taken just after completion)［Fig. 13］ Building ［A］: projected
corner of the exterior wall of thereception room (present)［Fig. 14］ Building ［B］: reception
room (present)［Fig. 15］ Building ［B］: dining room
(photo taken just after completion)

81

［Fig. 16］ Building ［B］:
imitation fireplace inthe dining room(present)［Fig. 17］ Building ［B］: veranda(present)［Fig. 18］ Building ［B］: Floor tiles of theveranda (present)［Fig. 19］ Building ［B］: finish of thedoor and the bottom half of the wall of
the veranda (present)

Meaning of the mixed styles
These two Western-style buildings are based on the Tudor revival style, astyle that became popular during the period of industrialization in Europe. As
an expression of fondness and nostalgia for the late medieval period whencraftsmanship was important, Tudor revival style is associated with the Arts
and Crafts movement. Nezu, the second owner, was famously a collector of
antiques from east Asia, including Japanese pieces. His appreciative attitude
towards the works and aesthetic sense of historical craftsmen and painters
recalls the fond nostalgia of some Western people towards the late medieval
period. This accounts for his home's unique mix of Tudor revival andhistorical styles from Japan and other Asian countries.

82

In the single-storied building, various design styles share a small space. Of
the many houses built by Shimizu-gumi in the same period, this house isextremely expansive and free wheeling in attitude, which is fitting for asecondary house in a warm resort area. The building is an exceptional andgorgeous example of an old holiday house in Atami. The practical use ofmodern (at the time) technologies is also noteworthy, such as the large
reinforced concrete foundation, the large glass panels and stained glass, andthe skylight supported by steel frames.
Kaichirō Nezu Secondary Residence, including these two Western-stylebuildings, underwent extensive renovations prior to its new life as aJapanese-style hotel. Economic factors brought it close to demolition.
Through careful work, the buildings have now been restored to a state very
near their original forms, and rejuvenated as a symbol of Atami for visitors toenjoy. We can appreciate Nezu’s imaginative aesthetic and collection. We canexperience the splendid space thanks to the devotion and tireless work of agroup of local women and the nonprofit organization they founded to share
their sentiments for the space. These women continue to love this place andits history, and continue to preserve the culture of Atami.
【References】
1. Kiunkaku yobi chōsa hōkokusho (Kyu Nezu-ke Atami Bettei) [Kiun-kaku preliminary
survey report (former Nezu Family Atami Secondary Residence)], Shimizu Corporation,
2000
2. Terunobu Fujimori, Akihisa Masuda, Nihon no yōkan [Western-style house in Japan],
vol. 5, Shōwa edition I, Kōdansha, 2003
3. Shisei shikō 80 shūnen kinen Atami onsen shi [Atami City 80th anniversary Atami hot
spring magazine], Atami City, 2017
4. Kenchiku Gahō [Architecture pictorial magazine], May 1929 Issue, Kenchiku Gahō Inc.,
May 1929【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6, 8-11, 13, 14, 16-19:
Fig. 2, 4, 5, 7:
Fig. 12, 15:

Photographs taken by the Committee
Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 1, 1935
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

83Analysis
ColumnThe Sunroom

Mansions built around that time often have a sunroom, which is not
limited to those built by Shimizu-gumi. It is, literally, “a room with sunlight”
or “a sun-bathing room”, but rooms with similar functions are also
sometimes called verandas. Referring to the room as a veranda may
originate from colonial houses with veranda built in foreign settlements at
the end of the Edo period. In these instances, the veranda was enclosed by
Japanese-style sliding glass doors.
The two Western-style buildings of Kaichirō Nezu Secondary Residence
have verandas that can be called sunrooms (Fig. 1-3). The spaces are brightand expansive, with sunlight pouring in through large glass windows, ofcourse, and in from the ceiling. Their floors are decorated with tiles ofcoordinating colors and patterns. The toplights and the transom windows aredesigned with colored stained glass and light diffusing figured glass. These
decorative features add cheer to the room.
Tsunekichi Niitsu, known as “the oil tycoon”, had his primary residence inNiigata City and a secondary House in Izunokuni City (p. 174). Both of thesebuildings were built by Shimizu-gumi and included a sunroom. The Niitsu
Houses were designed by Hiroshi Ōtomo, who also designed the Nezu
Secondary Residence. Stained glass similarly played an important role in theinterior of these houses. Reportedly, Tsunekichi Niitsu spent more time at
the secondary house in the pleasantly warm Izu area, but his favorite room in
the Niigata house was the sunroom. Because of his ill health, he may haveespecially appreciated the relaxing and bright indoor space.
It is interesting to note that vita-glass, a special type of glass that did notfilter ultraviolet rays, was used in the Western-style building of Kaichirō Nezu
Secondary Residence, built in 1932. It is now well known that ultraviolet
rays are harmful to skin tissue, but at the time they were regarded as a
remedy for (at that time) incurable ailments such as tuberculosis. It was
believed that the rays could kill the tuberculosis bacillus and expand veins inthe skin, thus stimulating metabolism.

84

At the beginning of the Showa era, residential lighting and heating
systems were already well developed. However, compared with modern
technology available in present day houses, which makes them airtight andcomfortable year round, equipment in the past seems rather weak andprimitive. Dark and cold areas could then be found even in upper andmiddle class houses. This may explain why their owners demanded sunlight,
with its accompanying warmth and brightness, to a degree much greaterthan we do. Rooms were designed to admit sunlight not only to create apleasant environment, but also to address the needs of health-conscious, orto aid the convalescence of sickly residents. The beauty of the sunbeam wasfurther enhanced through the use of glass panels with various qualities. In
addition to standard clear glass, houses of the time featured panels of
figured glass, frosted glass, colored glass, matte glass, and polished glass.
According to several sources, having a sunroom added a surrounding
glow to the lifestyle of residents. It was used as a place for sunbathing in
winter, a playroom for children, and a casual reception room. On summer
evenings it was the best place to catch the cool breeze.
In the Taisho period, Japanese-style glass sliding doors were often
installed on the edge of engawa (Japanese-style veranda). By making a wider
engawa with the width of 1.2m to 1.8m, people could use the space like asunroom. Residents could relax in chairs and children could play, just as theywould in the sunroom of a Western-style house. While sunrooms were afeature of the spread of Western-style houses and use of glass panels,
Japanese people in fact quietly created the same function in Japanesehouses (Fig. 4).
(Akira Yasuno)

85

［Fig. 2］ Veranda of the Westernstyle building, Kaichirō Nezu
Secondary Residence［Fig. 1］ Section of the veranda of thegarden house with bathroom, Kaichirō
Nezu Secondary Residence (p. 79 Fig.
11)

［Fig. 3］ View of the Western-stylebuilding, Kaichirō Nezu Secondary
Residence【Sources】
Fig. 1:
Fig. 2, 3:
Fig. 4:［Fig. 4］ Engawa with the width of 1.8m,
Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence

Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Photographs taken by the Committee (August 2018)
Provided by the Church of World Messianity

86

87

2-4

Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence

Residence to connect memories - from the story of a family to thestory of a neighborhood
Setsuko Nakajima［Fig. 1］ Front façade(before 1919, likely
just after completion)［Fig. 2］ East façade (before 1919,
likely just after completion)［Fig. 3］ Reception room,
originally a dining room (justbefore relocation in 1943)［Fig. 4］ Ichi-no-ma (Aoi-no-ma) of theJapanese-style building, the paintings
on the fusuma by Arinobu Mitani
88Process of inheritance
1916
Kyūdayū Kawakita(completion of the Western-style building)
1919
1923

renovation
extension

1950

donation/relocation
Suzuka Naval Arsenal↓
Suzuka Denki Tsushin Gakuen

1985-present

conveyance of ownershipdisassembly & preservation of components
A religious organization

1943

Note 1: In 2008, the plot at Chitoseyama was donated by the Kawakita family to Tsu City.
Note 2: Some of components were conveyed for free by Handeishi to Chitoseyama no
Bunka Isan wo Keishosuru Kai (Society to inherit the cultural properties ofHandeishi and Chitoseyama).
Location

Tsu City (Mie) - #45

Completion

Western-style building: 1916
Renovation: 1919
Extension: 1923
Western-style building: Shintaro Ooe
Renovation: Shimizu-gumi (Junkichi Tanabe)
Extension: Shimizu-gumi (Tokuzō Ozasa)

Architect

Structure
Main Purpose
Plot Area
Floor Area

Wood, two stories
Residence → Disassembled (components are preserved instorage)
20,000 tsubo (66,116 sq. m)
226.18 sq. m, according to Kawakita Kyūdayū Hontei buzai chōsa
hōkokusho (Component survey report of the Kyūdayū Kawakita
Residence)89

Utopia of Handeishi
There presently exists a house that was once disassembled, its
components miraculously preserved, and in time became part of the local
identity. The house is the Kyūdayū Kawakita House at Chitoseyama, Tarumi,
Tsu City, Mie (Fig. 1).
The house was owned by Kyūdayū-Masanori Kawakita (1878-1963), the16th head of the Kawakita family. The family had been running a cotton
trading business in Ise since the Kan’ei period (1624-44). Masanori was abusinessman who took care of the family business and served as thepresident of Hyakugo Bank. At the same time, he crafted excellent works ofpottery, painting, and calligraphy. He is now known by the name he took as
an artist, Handeishi.
Since the late 17th century, the main house of the Kawakita family had
been located in Wakebe, Tsu. Around 1907, Handeishi made a plan to build asecondary house at Chitoseyama, Tarumi, which is closer to Ise Bay. Chitose
yama was the only hill in this area, and it commanded a splendid view of thebay and the surrounding town. Handeishi picked this location probably
because of the great view and its lovely setting.
Construction on the house actually began in the Taisho period. The
Japanese-style building (Kōgikaku) was completed in 1915, and the Westernstyle building was completed in 1916 (Fig. 2). In addition, the construction
work included a front gate, a lodge, and a stone bridge on the way from thefront gate to the Western-style building. In 1923, the office/reception room
block was added. At the beginning of the Showa period, more buildings
were constructed: the new building connecting to the Western-stylebuilding; the Chitose Bunko (designed by Kenjirō Maeda, 1930, a National
Registered Tangible Cultural Property), to store the family’s collection ofartworks and books; and the Kobai-kaku (designed by Handeishi, 1931), tohonor his grandmother Masako. Eventually, the vast plot at Chitoseyama
included a building for pottery making, a tennis court, and a golf course. The
main house of the Kawakita family was shifted from Wakebe to Chitoseyama
around 1930, after which the family continued building more facilities (Fig. 5).
There is a video of the Kawakita family at Chitoseyama around 1928 and
1930, probably filmed by Sōtaro, their eldest son and amature filmmaker. In
the video, we catch a glimpse of the charmed life of the family at
Chitoseyama: Handeishi and his family frolicking with their dog; Handeishi
and his friends enjoying tennis; a party after a wedding ceremony; children
happily playing on swings under the serene watchful eyes of some ladies.

90Chitoseyama was a centre of family life and also played an important role
as a place for Handeishi to pursue his career as a potter. Handeishi
reportedly started to be absorbed in pottery-making because of
Chitoseyama’s high quality pottery clay. He deepened his friendships withfellow potters, such as Toyozō Arakawa and Tōyō Kaneshige, and invited his
close artist friends to Chitoseyama for various creative activities such as
painting, calligraphy, and tea ceremony. Being the head of the family and abusinessman, he also used the mansion at Chitoseyama for welcoming
people from politics and business.
The buildings and facilities Handeishi built at Chitoseyama must havebeen a utopia where he created the ideal residential compound as a happyliving space for his family, a creative centre for his art, and an impressive
backdrop for his business ventures.

［Fig. 5］ Aerial photo (just before the relocation in 1943)

91

Shintaro Ooe and Junkichi Tanabe
Two very important architects of Japanese modern architecture wereinvolved in the house at Chitoseyama. For the first two buildings, theWestern-style building and the Japanese-style building, Shintaro Ooe (18761935), who was involved in many traditional architectures such as Meiji Jingu,
created the initial plan. His plan was described in drawings displayed at theTokyo Industrial Exhibition in 1907. Entitled “Shinshi-jutaku” (gentleman’s
house), the plan stated that “it should be newly constructed at Chitoseyama,Ise” in a style described as “the English cottage style”. The building was alarge two-storied Western-style building, with a masonry slope and a tunnel
in front. The façade was in the Tudor style with the characteristic exposed
structural frames on the exterior wall. The plan also called for a Japanesestyle building behind the Western-style building. The actual Western-stylebuilding was smaller than the submitted plan, but the façade was the same.
There is no question that Ooe made the initial design for the house, one of
the early examples of a Tudor-style house in Japan. Details about theJapanese-style building are unclear due to a lack of contemporary sources,
but Ooe may have designed it. He was mentioned often in Handeishi’s diary,
and the two men enjoyed a close lifelong friendship.
The second important architect was Junkichi Tanabe (1879-1926), a
leading architect of the Taisho period who designed Seishi-dō (1916,
National Important Cultural Property) and Seien Bunko (1925, National
Important Cultural Property). In 1918, just after completion of the Westernstyle building, a series of renovations started (for reasons unknown) in
several areas of the building, such as the hall on the first floor, exterior walls
on the front, and the veranda on the east, all of which were completed in
1919 (Fig. 7, 8). Tanabe, then gishi-cho (chief architect) of Shimizu-gumi,
designed the renovations (Fig. 9). Shimizu-gumi was responsible for the
initial construction in 1916, so it is natural that the renovation two years
later was carried out by the firm.
In the introduction for this building in Tanabe Junkichi Shi Sakuhin Shu(Collected works of Junkichi Tanabe), Kōichi Sato writes,“The original designer of the Kawakita Secondary Residence was adifferent person, but this hall was renovated using Tanabe’s design due tothe owner’s request in 1919. (…) The general design around the fireplace wasall changed to highlight what he was good at, and furniture of his design wasplaced in the room. The room looked totally new.”92

While he just rearranged components of the original design for thisrenovation, the design around the fireplace (Fig. 10) is similar to Bankōro(1917, National Important Cultural Property), another work of the same time
period. The similarity is especially evident in the tiles around the fireplace
and the choice of furniture to match the tiles. There may have been ameeting of artistic minds between Tanabe, who pursued synergy between
architecture and handcraft, and Handeishi, who pursued a career as a potter.
In Shimizu-gumi’s Jutaku Kenchiku Zushu vol. 1 (1935), both Ooe andTanabe are listed as architects of Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence. Both are partof the history of the Kawakita Residence, and their involvement reflectsHandeishi’s interest and attitude towards art, including architecture, and his
wide range of relationships.

［Fig. 6］ Drawings of “Shinshi jutaku” of Shintaro Ooe, displayed at the Tokyo
Industrial Exhibition in 1907: the text below the illustration states this building
was supposed to be built at “Chitoseyama, Ise”, and the background of theelevation is the actual scenery. It fits the landscape of Chitoseyama, so it iscertainly a blueprint of the Western-style building of the Kawakita Residence

93［Fig. 7］ Front façade after renovation in 1918 and 1919.
Note the following changes: the exterior wall on the rightside was altered from the white shikkui plaster finish to
the decorative brick finish; the stairs in front of theentrance and the eaves were changed; and a bay window
was added to the left corner of the first floor［Fig. 8］ East façade after renovationsin 1918 and 1919. The area aroundthe veranda on the first floor waschanged［Fig. 9］ Drawings of the fireplace andits surrounding area in the first floor
hall, for the renovations in 1918.
Designed by Junkichi Tanabe［Fig. 10］ Area around the first floor
fireplace, after the renovations in
1918

Design of the Western-style building and the Japanese-style building
The Western-style building was in the Tudor style, with the wooden
timber frame visible on the exterior wall and the interior. It was topped witha steep gable roof with slate roofing. The façade had an impressive highcontrast wall composition: masonry for the foundation part; ornamental
brick finish between exposed pillars on the wall, up to the beam at the firstfloor; and white shikkui plaster finish above that. A chimney with a buttressworked as an accent on the façade next to the entrance.
94

Most of the interior had a heavy feeling, created by exposed beams andjoists on the ceiling, many wooden panels on the walls, and bricks finishing
the fireplace. The interior is generally simple, but some decorative elements
can be found, such as the parquet floor of the dining room, the newel posts
and the handrail on the stairs, beams and pillars in the hall, and stained glass(Fig. 3, 10, 11).
Both architects’ skills are evident in the overall composition of the small
but well-balanced building, and in the authentic high-quality design found insome rooms such as the hall, the staircase, and the dining room. The
office/reception-room block, constructed in 1923, was also built in the same
Tudor style (Fig. 12).
The Japanese-style building was built behind the Western-style building,with a corridor connecting the two buildings. The Japanese-style building
consisted of four rooms bordering two other rooms (Fig. 13). On the east
side, featuring hiro-en (broad Japanese-style veranda), was the ichi-no-ma(primary room) with jodan (raised floor area), also called aoi-no-ma (mallowroom), and the ni-no-ma (secondary room), also called kaede-no-ma (mapleroom). On the west side, there were the tea room and the san-no-ma(tertiary room), also called ume-no-ma (plum room). Avocational designs
made by Handeishi were used in places such as the lacquered frame oftsuke-shoin (built-in table) of the jodan. The paintings on the fusuma (paper
sliding doors) and cedar doors were by Arinobu Mitani (1842-1928), who was
known to Handeishi (Fig. 4). No detail was too small, and we know that
Handeishi visited Hikoemon Nishimura at Daibutsu-Kawaramachi in Kyoto in
August 1915, to discuss decorative ridge-end tiles, eaves tiles, and laying tiles.
He also visited Tsuneshichi Nakano at Higashi-no-Touin-Matsubara in
September, to discuss nailhead covers. These visits must have been in
preparation for construction of the Japanese-style building at Chitoseyama.
His hand selection of features shows the extraordinary passion of Handeishi
in the construction of the secondary residence at Chitoseyama.

［Fig. 11］ Second floor hall (justbefore the relocation in 1943)［Fig. 12］ Office/reception room
block, extended in 1923, also in the
Tudor style95

［Fig. 13］ Plan just before relocation in 1943

Relocation/disassembly/discovery
After being used as the main part of the Kawakita Residence, theWestern-style building and the Japanese-style building were donated byHandeishi in 1943 to the Suzuka Naval Arsenal to serve as a VIP room. This
year saw the Second World War intensifying. There is no record of the reason
for the donation, but as Handeishi was a notable figure in the region,
providing a house must have been the largest possible contribution to thenation.
In 1950, the buildings were relocated to Ejima, Suzuka, and converted to adormitory for international students at Suzuka Denki Tsushin Gakuen (Suzuka
Telecommunication School). They were converted again and used as Suzukaso, the employee’s club of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp. The
buildings were ultimately disassembled in 1985 and ownership of theircomponents was conveyed to a religious organization in Nara. Upon theirdisassembly, the two buildings essentially disappeared from their original
location and the Kawakita Residence eventually faded from memory. Over a
period of seventy years and through many conversions, the Western-styleand Japanese-style buildings had served as a family residence, a reception
facility, a dormitory, and finally a company accommodation.

96

Presumed missing since 1985, the components were confirmed to bepreserved in 2009, nearly a quarter century after their disassembly. The
religious organization that possessed ownership of these components tried
to reassemble them for a library, but the plan did not work out, so thecomponents were stored for preservation. The discovery of the components
was made just after a survey on Chitoseyama began to determine how to use
and manage the hill. The survey was undertaken following the decision by
the Kawakita family to donate the entire land of Chitoseyama to Tsu City.
To be a story of a neighborhood
Upon their discovery, a survey of the remaining components was led by
the Tsu City Education Board and conducted by Mie University andHanzemon Ito Architectural Design Office. The survey determined that
although some components were severely damaged, the Western-stylebuilding and the Japanese-style building could be almost fully restored.
With the prospect of future restoration, Tsu Bunka Kyokai (Tsu Culture
Association) started an effort to inherit the cultural properties of Handeishi
and Chitoseyama in the latter part of 2012. Handeishi to Chitoseyama no
Bunka Isan wo Keishosuru Kai (Society to Inherit the Cultural Properties ofHandeishi and Chitoseyama) was established in September of 2015. The
society launched Chitose-sanso Fukugen Project (Chitose-sanso Restoration
Project), collected signatures, created booklets and catalogs, and held events
such as exhibitions, lectures, study sessions, concerts, and tea ceremonies.
At the same time, Tsu City created the report Chitoseyama no Seibi ni tsuite(About management of Chitoseyama), with the intent to turn the whole of
Chitoseyama into a park for experiencing nature, history, and culture.
The expanse of Chitoseyama still contains places and structures related to
the Kawakita family: a garden, the kobai-kaku, the front gate, the stonebridge, remains of a Japanese rock garden in front of the Japanese-stylebuilding, a sundial gifted to commemorate the round-the-world trip ofHandeishi and Sōtaro (designed by Shimizu-gumi, 1925), a wall fountain, theformer house of Sōtaro (1948), an atelier studio (1971), and a dock. Morerecent additions include Sekisui Museum (designed and built by Shimizu
Corporation, 2010) and the Chitose Bunko, managed by the public-interest
incorporated foundation of Sekisui Museum. The museum originated fromthe incorporated foundation Sekisui Kaikan, founded in 1930 as a center topromote local culture and social welfare activities, and to store and exhibit
artifacts of the Kawakita family and works of Handeishi.

97

The Western-building and the Japanese-building of the Kawakita
Residence were relocated and converted, presumed lost and forgotten, yettheir components miraculously survived. The story of the buildings'
checkered past contains an important lesson. The survival of the buildings
has been publicly praised and claimed as part of local culture by Tsu City.
The city has used the story of the discovery and planned restoration of thebuildings and as an example of a civic movement. The interest demonstrates
that Kawakita Residence has acquired new social importance and value after
one hundred years. Upon the donation of Chitoseyama from the Kawakita
family to Tsu City, Chitoseyama would be a park open to local people. If thebuildings are also restored, the story of the Kawakita Residence will become
a story of the neighborhood and, hopefully be passed on throughgenerations. The second life of Kawakita Residence is poised to begin.
【References】
1. Tokyo kangyo tenrankai shuppin kenchiku zuanshu [Collection of architectural
drawings, exhibited at the Tokyo Industrial Exhibition], Kenchiku Sekai Sha, 1911
2. Tanabe Junkichi shi sakuhin shu [Collected works of Junkichi Tanabe], edited by Kōichi
Sato, Kōyō-sha, 1921
3. Yōichi Sugawara, Kyu Kawakita Kyūdayū Tei no kenchiku ni tsuite [About architecture of
the former Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence], Architectural Institute of Japan Annual
Conference, 1985
4. Kawakita Handeishi no subete [Everything about Handeishi Kawakita], exhibition
catalog, The Asahi Shimbun Company, 2009
5. Kawakita Kyūdayū Hontei buzai chōsa hōkokusho [Component survey report of the
Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence], Tsu City Education Board, 2012
6. Tatsuya Fuyuno et al., Chitoseyama shōzai tōji no Kawakita Kyūdayū Tei ni tsuite[About Kyūdayū Kawakita Residence during the period at Chitoseyama], Architectural
Institute of Japan, 2013
7. Kawakita Handeishi to Chitose Sanso--Taisho Showa no Tsu ni hanahiraita Chitoseyama
bunka [Handeishi Kawakita and Chitose Sanso: Chitoseyama culture flourished in Tsu
during the Taisho and the Showa period], Handeishi to Chitoseyama no Bunka Isan wo
Keishosuru Kai [Society to inherit the cultural properties of Handeishi and
Chitoseyama], 2018
8. Kōichiro Chihaya, Ore ha rokuro no mawaru mama--hyoden Kawakita Handeishi [I doas my potter’s wheel rotates: critical biography of Handeishi Kawakita], Nikkei Books,
1988
9. Film donated by the Kawakita family, owned by the National Film Archive of Japan98

【Sources】
Fig. 1-5, 11, 13:
Fig. 6:
Fig. 7, 9, 12:
Fig. 8:Fig. 10:

Courtesy of the Kawakita family
from Tokyo kangyo tenrankai shuppin kenchiku zuanshu[Collection of architectural drawings, exhibited at the Tokyo
Industrial Exhibition], Kenchiku Sekai Sha, 1911
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Jutaku kenchiku zushu [Residential architecture catalog], vol.
1, 1935
from Tanabe Junkichi shi sakuhin shu [Collected works ofJunkichi Tanabe], edited by Kōichi Sato, Kōyō-sha, 1921

99

Tips to Preserve Buildings II

Heritage Manager: Local Expert Of Historical
Buildings

You may want to sustain a house in some way. Your family lived in thehouse over many generations and cared for it, but you cannot live there
anymore. You may want to keep living in the same house after aseismic
reinforcement or renovation. In such cases, where should we go and whomshould we consult with?
You may decide to meet with a real estate company or a builder’s office. If
the building has potential value as a cultural property, you may visit thecultural property department of a municipality. If it is related to inheritanceand conveyance, you may consider asking a lawyer or a licenced tax
accountant for advice. Another option for consultation should be included,that of the heritage manager, who works locally on surveys, preservation,and utilization of historical buildings.
A heritage manager is a person with the ability to discover historical orcultural heritages hidden in the area, preserve them, and make use of themfor local development. To become a heritage manager, it is necessary to
successfully complete a special course offered in each prefecture, a course
usually held by a society of architects and building engineers. Participants inthe course can learn about a wide variety of subjects through lectures andpractices. Examples of topics include basic knowledge such as the concept of
repair, the history of local buildings and the townscape, related laws andsubsidies, and management. More specialized topics include techniques forpreservation and repair (traditional building, modern building), aseismic
reinforcement, disaster prevention, landscape preservation, and machizukuri(local community development) activities.
Heritage managers include people from varied backgrounds such asarchitects, professional engineers, lawyers, municipal officers, and registeredreal-estate brokers. The role of heritage manager offers the benefit ofcollaboration among many professionals through heritage manager
organizations. Heritage managers can work with other heritage managers
with expertise in specific fields on an individualized basis. Nearly all
prefectures currently have a heritage manager organization, with thenumber of heritage managers in Japan exceeding four thousands individuals.

100

To consult with a heritage manager, you can inquire at a prefecturalsociety of architects and building engineers, or contact a heritage manager
organization directly. When you make inquiries at the National Heritage
Manager Network Council, which is made up of heritage manager
organizations across Japan, you will be referred to a local heritage manager
organization.
When considering inheritance of your beloved house, please remember
heritage managers.
(Setsuko Nakajima)

101

2-5

Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary
House

Excellent architecture in Ōiso where a “ridge beam lowering
ceremony” was held

Yoshiko Mizunuma［Fig. 1］ Southwest
façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Façade (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Bay window in theWestern-style room on the 2nd
floor (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Western-style room on the
2nd floor (before disassembly in 2004)

102

［Fig. 5］ Japanese-style rooms on the 1st floor

Process of inheritance1927 (completion)
1939
1956
2004

Morinosuke Mitsui↓ succession of the house
Takaatsu Mitsui↓
Mr. M↓ for construction of an apartment building
Disassembly/Preservation of components

LocationŌiso Town, Naka Gun (Kanagawa) - #32

Completion

May 1927

Architect

Kozaburō Kigo

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Secondary house → No longer exists (components arepreserved)

Floor Area

120 tsubo (396 sq. m)

Morinosuke Mitsui built a secondary house at ŌisoIn 1909, Morinosuke-Takayasu Mitsui (1875-1946), eighth head of theNagasaka-chō Mitsui family, built a secondary house with two stories and
121 tsubo (396 sq. m) floor area. It was located on a hilltop a few minutes
away from the Ōiso train station, and its second floor had an ocean view. The
secondary house was demolished due to damage from the Great Kanto
Earthquake, and a new secondary house was built in 1927 on a similar scale.
The new building was a wooden two-storied Western-style building withhipped slate roofing.

103

The new house was designed by Kozaburō Kigo. The Kigo family was afamily of master carpenters who had been involved in imperial buildings. His
father Kiyoyoshi was a master of Japanese-style architecture who
contributed to the construction of Meiji Palace and taught JapaneseArchitecture history at the Department of Architecture, Tokyo Imperial
University. Kozaburō Kigo graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, worked
at the Construction Department of the Crown Prince Palace and the Bureauof Construction at the Imperial Household Agency, and started hisarchitectural design firm in 1922. During his service at the Construction
Department of the Crown Prince Palace and the Bureau of Construction, helearned Western-style architecture from architect Tokuma Katayama, whom
he respected as a lifelong master. In this way, Kozaburō Kigo was an uniquearchitect, as he learned Japanese-style architecture directly from his father
Kiyoyoshi and Western-style architecture from Tokuma Katayama.1 His works
include Takeda-no-miya Residence Western-style Building, Arisugawa-nomiya Okinajima Secondary Residence, Kitashirakawa-no-miya Otsuka
Secondary Residence, and Aoyama Kume House. He also designed theWestern-style annex of Morinosuke Mitsui Tokyo Main House.
The new Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary House was facing the street on
the south side, while the building itself was set back from the street. In spiteof a wall, people could see some parts of the large building. The noble halftimbering façade around the entrance attracted a great deal of interest. The
building was famous enough to merit inclusion in the book Nihon kindai
kenchiku sōran (Catalog of Japanese modern architecture, Architecture
Institute of Japan, 1980) and the architectural survey report on holiday
houses in Ōiso, Ōiso no sumai (Residence in Ōiso, Ōiso Town Education Board,1992).

104

［Fig. 6］ Original plan (just after
completion, from the Catalog, room
names are added)［Fig. 7］ Japanese-style room on thewest side of the 2nd floor［Fig. 8］ Japanese-style room on theeast side of the 2nd floor［Fig. 9］ Ridge beam lowering ceremony

105

Earthquake-proof nested-structure Western-style building
Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary House had an entrance located on thewestern side of the south façade. From the staircase, located on the north ofthe entrance hall, living spaces for the master and the family were on theeast side, office spaces were on the west side, and functional spaces such as
the kitchen were on the north side (Fig. 6). Of the rooms meant for the
master and the family, the main rooms were all on the east side. Of the threerooms on the first floor and three rooms on the second floor, only the roomwith a bay window at the southeast corner of the second floor was inWestern-style (Fig 3, 4). All other rooms were Japanese-style rooms withtatami mats. The two connected Japanese-style rooms were finished in the
shoin style by adding nageshi (horizontal piece of timber above openings)
over the square pillars (Fig. 5). The two Japanese-style rooms on the second
floor were high-quality sukiya-design rooms each with a different character.
Each room had toko-no-ma (decorative alcove) and tana (shelf) (Fig. 7, 8).
The room below the Western-style room also had a bay window and afireplace, but its floor was covered with tatami mats overlaid by carpet.
The main frame was composed in the ookabe-style (hidden pillars), andfake pillars were used in Japanese-style rooms to imitate the shinkabe-style(exposed pillars) structure. The roof frame was a Western-style king post
truss, and metal parts such as staples and battledore bolts were usedfrequently throughout. At the boundary of the two connected rooms on thefirst floor, the tie beam was reinforced by steel plate in the middle. A sturdy
structure was a necessity for a house constructed after the large earthquake.
The house had a dignified look for a Western-style building (Fig. 1, 2).
Windows made up the entire south side wall above waist level on both floors,and stone panels were placed outside up to the windows of the first floor.
The rooms on the southeast corners of both floors had bay windows. The
roof was constructed of natural slate panels and featured dormer windows
and a tall lightning conductor
As previously noted, most of the rooms were Japanese style, while the
façade was Western style. This contrast was a major feature of thisMorinosuke Mitsui Secondary House. This quasi-nested structure, theJapanese-style rooms and the Western-style structure with the ookabe frame
and the Western-style roof truss, was a result of exploring how to harmonize
seismic resistance and Japanese-style design. The building was an ambitious
work filled with original ideas from architect Kozaburō Kigo.

106

Disassembly of Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary House at ŌisoAfter Morinosuke Mitsui died, his eldest son Takaatsu inherited thebuilding, but he sold it to an individual hereafter referred to as Mr. M in 1956.
Mr. M used this building as a primary residence. After Mr. M died, his wife
tried to sell it to Ōiso Town, but they could not reach an agreement. As aresult, the building and the plot were sold to a real estate developer, and anapartment development project including the plot was announced in 2002.
Around the same time that local people found out about the apartment
project, a movement had started to protect historical buildings in Ōiso. Just
after the development project became public, an organization, “Ōiso Isan”
Hozonkai (“Ōiso Heritage” Preservation Society), was created for the sake ofpreservation of the Mitsui Residence. As was standard, a request for
preservation was submitted to the town, and several events were held, suchas an open house event and a symposium about the value of the building. As
a result of these efforts the town did consider purchasing the property, but
the effort came too late. Consequently, the development project proceeded
and the building was disassembled.
In the Kigo-bunko (Kigo collection) of Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library,
there are 250 individual drawings titled as “Takayasu Mitsui Ōiso Secondary
House”. The drawings illustrate the timeline from initial planning stage to
execution, and include full-scale drawings. Comparing the execution
drawings and the condition before disassembly, it seems the original
appearance was well preserved for both the interior and the exterior.
However, some functional spaces, such as the office, kitchen, and bathingroom, and some fixtures were altered.

Disassembly work and involvement of local people
Dramatic events began to unfold. After the disassembly was scheduled by
the developer, the “Ōiso Isan” Hozonkai asked for donations from local
people and the general public, and decided to perform the disassembly workfor preservation of components, with a hope to rebuild it in the future. It was
local people, not the municipality, who played a major role in thedisassembly work without receiving any compensation or fee. With a very
tight schedule of about one month, which was obviously insufficient for thedisassembly, many volunteers joined this work to do as much as possible.

107

Chief engineer was the late Kazuo Nishi, then professor of Kanagawa
University. Students from his laboratory made construction records, and analumna of his laboratory who lived nearby was stationed at the site.
Matsumoto Shaji Kensetsu (Matsumoto Shrine and Temple Construction)from Kamakura was contracted for the work, and, under the supervision of
the shrine carpenter Takahiro Matsumoto, the disassembly work was carriedout smoothly. In less than a month, 270 man-days of work by volunteers,
including architects and students, was dedicated to this disassembly work.
Two weeks after beginning the work, the time came to remove the ridge
beam. The carpenter proposed to have a ridge beam lowering ceremony, likea ridge beam raising ceremony, and so volunteers took down the long ridge
beam of the Mitsui Secondary House (Fig. 9). These components have beenpreserved at a private house at Ōiso for a long time.2
Why did these people try to preserve this building in memories andrecords? Although eighty years had passed since its construction, thebuilding still had attractive features: design with earthquake-proof
consideration, thoroughly refined construction work, high quality materials,
and decorative details such as stained glass and fixtures in the Japanese-stylerooms. Every person who participated in the disassembly work had truly
experienced this building from different perspectives. The power of “thegenuine things” at Morinosuke Mitsui Secondary House conveyed many
messages to those involved with it.
Partially as a result of the movement to preserve the Mitsui Secondary
House, threats to historical residential buildings in the Shōnan area wererecognized. In response, Kanagawa Prefecture started Teien Bunkaken Saisei
Koso (Regeneration plan for houses and gardens in the cultural region), andthe movement has spread throughout the Shōnan area.3 The Morinosuke
Mitsui Secondary House at Ōiso should be praised for its contribution thistransition and increased efforts toward preservation.

【Notes】
1. Shichirō Kigo, younger brother of Kozaburō, was also an architect, and his work is also
included in the Catalog.
2. In January 2020, these were relocated to another place as a preparation for further
utilization.
3. There is a plan to preserve and utilize existing houses and gardens along the Sagami
Bay area and to promote the region, through collaboration with owners, local people,
and municipalities.

108

【Reference】
Kyu Mitsui Morinosuke Ōiso Bessō chōsa hōkokusho [Survey report on the former
Morinosuke Mitsui Ōiso Secondary House], Teien Bunka Chōsadan, 2000
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 7-9:
Fig. 2, 4, 6:

Photographs taken by the author
From Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture
catalog), vol. 1, 1935

109

2-6

Rihee Hyuga Secondary House

The modern Japanese-style house overshadowed by the work of
Bruno TautAsae Ozawa［Fig. 1］ Southeast façade(present)［Fig. 2］ Southeast façade (phototaken just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Koagari (the raised-floorarea) in the living room (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Koagari (the raised-floor area)in the living room (present)

110Process of inheritance1935 (completion)

Rihee Hyuga(Possibly registered in the name of his third son,
Shōzō Hyuga 日向 正三)↓
1943
Two individuals↓
1952
Nippon Carbide Industries Co., Inc.
↓
2004 to present (2019) Atami City
Location

Atami City (Shizuoka) - #38

Completion

February 1935

ArchitectJin Watanabe (Jin Watanabe Architecture Office)

Structure

Wood, two stories + one basement level

Main Purpose

Secondary house → Public facility

Plot Area

210 tsubo (approx. 694 sq. m)

Floor Area

58 tsubo (191 sq. m)

Cultural Property
Designation
Public Access

National Important Cultural Property supplementary designation
Open to the Public (temporary closed until 2022 for repair)

The main building preceding the work of TautIn May 1933, German architect Bruno Taut arrived in Tsuruga, Japan, via
Vladivostok. He was regarded as one of the key figures of the German
Expressionism movement, but his activities in the USSR were seen as a threatby the Nazis, so he fled to Japan. During his three-year stay in Japan, hedesigned just two buildings, only one of which still exists, Rihee Hyuga
Secondary House.

111

Rihee Hyuga Secondary House is a holiday house built in Atami, Shizuoka,
by Rihee Hyuga, a businessman who was an executive of Toyo Marine & Fire
Insurance Co., Ltd. The building is in the Higashiyama holiday house area
near Atami station. The house is famous for its unique interior features, suchas frequent use of bamboo, walls with dark red silk finish, and thearrangement of Japanese-style rooms at different floor levels. What Taut
designed was actually the inside of the artificial ground structure originallyinstalled for expanding the garden of the preexisting main building. The
preexisting main building was built by Shimizu-gumi and is included in theCatalog (Fig. 1, 2).
Hyuga Secondary House was constructed in three phases. First, thewooden main building was built based on the design of Jin Watanabe
Architecture Office. The design drawing no longer exists, but the layout planand floor plan of Hyuga Secondary House were included in the layout
drawing of Tatsuemon Yamamoto Secondary House, which was previously
located to the east of Hyuga House. Therefore the design of Hyuga
Secondary House must have been ready in February 1934, at the time the
Yamamoto layout drawing was created. The ridge beam was raised in May
1934 according to the munafuda (the information plate attached to the ridgepole), and the completion date of construction stated in the Catalog was
February 1935.
However, Rihee Hyuga found that the garden would be too small due to
its location on the slope, so he planned to build an artificial garden structure
by pouring reinforced concrete on the slope, and then putting soil on top of
the structure. The structure was designed and constructed by Shimizu-gumi
from June 1934 to August 1934 (Fig. 6). The staircase from the main building
to the basement of the artificial structure did not appear in the layout
drawing of Yamamoto Secondary House or the floor plan in the Catalog, but
it does appear in the structural drawing of the artificial structure created inJune 1934. We can conclude that the artificial structure was planned before
the completion of the main building, and assume that the completion of themain building took longer after the ridge-beam raising because somechanges were required for the extension of the basement floor.
In April 1935, Taut took over the interior design of the reinforced
concrete structure. The space was planned as a living room and a social hall,built by the carpenter Kahei Sasaki, and completed in September 1936 (Fig. 7,
10).1, 2 Taut left Japan on October 15th, a month after completion of thebasement, and Rihee Hyuga died in 1939.

112

［Fig. 5］ Floor plan (from the Catalog, English room names are added)［Fig. 6］ Exterior view: the garden ison the artificial ground structure
made of reinforced concrete(present)［Fig. 7］ Social hall in the basement
designed by B. Taut (present)［Fig. 8］ Guest room on the 2nd
floor: Initially the area in front of
the toko (decorative alcove) andthe storage had tatami mats, andthe other areas had wood flooring(present)［Fig. 9］ Ceiling of the living roomon the 1st floor (present)113

［Fig. 10］ Western-style guest roomin the basement, designed by B.
Taut (present)

Inheritance by the preservation movement for the works of Taut
After the death of Rihee Hyuga, this secondary house was sold to Nippon
Carbide Industries Co., Inc. It was used as a recreational facility for many
years, but in 2001 the company informed Atami City that the house would be
put up for sale.
Sensing that Taut's work was endangered by development, theArchitectural Institute of Japan submitted a preservation request in 2003.
DOCOMOMO Japan selected the building as part of the DOCOMOMO Japan
Selection 100. Atami City also considered ways to preserve the building, andin May 2004, the city received a proposal from a philanthropist in Tokyo.
That individual would donate 93 million yen to the city in order to purchasethe building. The city accepted the donation in November 2004 andpurchased the building from Nippon Carbide Industries Co., Inc.
After the acquisition, in 2005 Atami City did seismic reinforcement workon the house, mainly on the reinforced concrete structure. That same year,
the building began to be open to the public and was designated as a Tangible
Cultural Property of the City. The house was also designated as a National
Important Cultural Property in July 2006.

114

However, the main building has been overshadowed by the acclaim andattention given to Taut’s design and work on the interior of the basement of
the reinforced concrete structure, and the value of the main building has
generally not been recognized. The basement designed by Taut was actually
the only part of the building selected by DOCOMOMO Japan, and the only
portion of the building under designation as a City and National Cultural
Property. The main building is presently listed as the “tsuketari-shitei”(supplementary designation) of the basement. The designation of “tsuketarishitei” enables the addition of relevant historical documents of Important
Cultural Property buildings under the registration number of the building.
The method is usually reserved for munafuda, design drawings, specification
documents, and detached components found during repair work. Somebuilding plots have also been designated as “tsuketari-shitei”. In the case of
the Hyuga Secondary House, the main building and its plot were referred toas “the upper floors'' of the basement, and classified as a supplementary
extension of the basement.

Jin Watanabe’s modern Japanese-style design praised by Taut
The designer of the main building, Jin Watanabe, is famous for the basic
proposal for the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum Honkan [main building](present Tokyo National Museum Honkan, 1937), and for the design of Daiichi Seimeikan (1938). He also designed modernist buildings such as KunizōHara House (present Hara Museum Main Building, 1938).
The main building of Hyuga House has both Japanese and modern
elements similar to other designs by Jin Watanabe. The building has a gable
roof with pantile roofing, and the eaves are roofed by copper plates. The
main roof is straight, and the eaves and edges of the gable roof do notextend much from each exterior wall. The walls are ookabe-style walls(pillars are hidden in walls) with a scraped finish, and the first and second
floor windows use large panes of glass. Although considered a Japanese-stylebuilding, the Japanese character of the design is relatively muted and theeffect is rather more boxy, with large windows and straight, clean lines (Fig. 1,2). On the floor plan, the living room, wife’s room, husband’s room, andbathroom are aligned on the ocean facing side of the first floor, and the small
second story is comprised of a guest room, a six-tatami-mat room, and asunroom above the living room (Fig .5). Rooms are separated by a wall or astorage closet, and thus feel rather independent from each other. The firstfloor living room and the second floor guest room boast what is nearly anunobstructed view of Hatsushima Island. The floor plan and the layout musthave been designed around the scenery.
115

The highlight of the house is the first floor living room. It is a Westernstyle room with a wooden floor, but there is a three-tatami-size koagari(raised area) and a toko-no-ma (decorative alcove) in one corner of the room.
The living room also has sukiya-style features such as pillars with bark, a log
with nodes for bearing leaves, Kyoto-style mud finish walls, and touches ofbamboo and wickerwork. (Fig. 3). The koagari is about 40 centimeter high,and it can be adapted to seating with chairs. The photo in the Catalog showsa table and a chair placed near the koagari. Initially, the second floor guest
room was also a Western-style room with a three-tatami-size koagari (Fig. 8).
According to the Japanese translation of Bruno Taut in Japan: Das
Tagebuch (Bruno Taut in Japan: A Diary), before designing the interior, Taut
was invited to stay in the main building of the Hyuga Secondary House justafter its completion. He stayed there from April l5th to 19th, 1935, andcreated the initial sketches for the basement.3 In the book, Taut wrote of themain building; “The building is quite interesting and mostly well-made. I
have heard that the entire design is based on the direction of Mr. Hyuga...Thelayout of rooms is also considered thoroughly and the construction is also ofgreat quality.” He remarked about the curious living room koagari, “At theHyuga House, there is an unconventional room where the husband and wife
sit on the raised tatami-mat area and I sit on a chair in front of them.”
According to an interview by architecture historian Terunobu Fujimori withthe family of Rihee Hyuga, Rihee was particular about the koagari and feltthat the similar raised tatami area in his son’s house was too high.
The coffered ceiling of paulownia wood panels in the first floor livingroom has some Western-style design features (Fig. 9). Each coffer panel islarge, the frames are shallow, and a ceiling light is embedded in one coffer.
Notably, the design of this ceiling light is repeated in the Western-style
reception room Taut designed for the basement (Fig. 10). The paulownia
wood coffer panels are also used for the lower walls and the ceiling of thesocial hall. It seems Taut was inspired by the existing main building anddesigned these complementary elements.
However, some design elements are found in other houses built by
Shimizu-gumi, such as the checkered panel door of the storage closet in thehusband’s room and the area around toko (decorative alcove) and tana(shelf) in the living room. The delicate design for ventilation is also typical of
Shimizu-gumi. Slatted wooden hit and miss vents are used in the base of the
koagari of the living room and the lower part of the Japanese-style storage
closets in the husband and wife’s rooms.

116

In 2018, Atami City began a four-year preservation and repair project withthe total budget of three hundred thirty million yen. In the basement, theinterior will be repaired and restored, and the water leak in the reinforced
concrete structure will be surveyed and resolved. In the main building,seismic reinforcement will be conducted, including temporary partial
disassembly, as well as interior finishing work. After these repairs are
finished, the second floor of the main building will be open to the public.5
Subsequently, it is hoped that the main building will then be reevaluated andgiven equal value to the esteen given to the basement.

【Notes】
1. Yoshimi Hamazaki, “Nihonju dokonimonai atarashii Nihon-tekina interia Hyuga Bettei”[Hyuga Secondary House - New Japanese interior only existing here], Kenchiku
modanizumu [Architectural Modernism], X-Knowledge, 2001
2. Keiko Sugiyama, Hirohisa Ito, “Atami/Kyu Hyuga Bettei no kenchiku keii ni kansuru ichi
kousatu” [Study on details about construction of the former Hyuga Secondary Housein Atami], Summaries of Technical Papers of Annual Meeting, Architectural Institute ofJapan, 2005
3. Bruno Taut, Nihon -- Tauto no nikki 1935-1936 nen [Japan -- Taut’s diary 1935-1936](The German title is Bruno Taut in Japan: Das Tagebuch), translated by Hideo Shinoda,
Iwanami Shoten, 1975
4. Terunobu Fujimori, “Ie no kioku 26 -- Kyu Hyuga Rihee Tei: yonimo fushigina chikashitsu” [Memory of houses 26 -- the former Rihee Hyuga House: mysterious
basement], Konnichiwa, issue 96, February 1992
5. “Kyu Hyuga Bettei no shūfuku jisshi e” [The former Hyuga Secondary House will be
repaired], Atami Shimbun, March 6th, 2018
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6-10: Photos are taken by the Committee in June 2018
Fig. 2, 4, 5:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog], vol.
2, 1939

117

118

Chapter 3
Wisdom to Sustain a House Across Generations

119

3-1

Moichirō Saitō Holiday House &Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House

Receiving guests and pleasant company at a holiday house
Jun Hatano［Fig. 1］
Tetsusaburō
Tazawa Holiday
House (present):
the originalatmosphere is
generally preserved,
while the terrace
was shortened anda fireplace wasinstalled.

［Fig. 2］ Tetsusaburō Tazawa
Holiday House (photo taken justafter completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Living/dining room of
Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House(photo taken just after completion)［Fig. 3］ Living/dining room of
Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House(present): other than the fireplace, theinterior is almost the same as the original.
120

Moichirō Saitō Holiday House
Location

Nasu Town (Nasu-gun, Tochigi) - #5

Completion

July 1936

ArchitectMasao Inoue

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Holiday house → Holiday house

Plot Area

410 tsubo (approx. 1355 sq. m)

Floor Area

59 tsubo (195 sq. m)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)

Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House
Location

Nasu Town (Nasu-gun, Tochigi) - #6

Completion

July 1936

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (chief: Kihachiro Ando, staff: Tasuku Egi 江木 佐)

Structure

Wood, single story

Main Purpose

Holiday house → Holiday house

Plot Area

410 tsubo (approx. 1322 sq. m)

Floor Area

45 tsubo (149 sq. m)1

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)【Note】
1. Kōji shunkō hōkokusho [Construction completion report] states that the floor area is37.6 tsubo (124 sq. m.) with 6-tsubo (20 sq. m.) terrace.

Holiday houses and golf on a plateau
The reasoning behind having holiday houses on a plateau was not just to
escape to the country with family to avoid Tokyo’s hot summers. Before theSecond World War, holiday houses fulfilled the need for a venue forbusinessmen to host important guests. Golf was the leisure activity of choice
at holiday houses. Unlike its current mainstream popularity, before theSecond World War golf was only for the elite, such as important figures inthe business circles. Golf offered an opportunity for socialization, networking,and introducing family successors to proper etiquette with suitable company.

121

Importance of hosting seen at Moichirō Saitō Holiday House
Moichirō Saitō was one of the founding members of the prestigious Nasu
Golf Club. He was a businessman in Manchuria before the Second World War,and contributed to cultural and social projects after the war, such as serving
as the president of the Yuki City Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
His holiday house is basically an expensive house in a suburban
residential area, while evoking the charm of a mountain villa, with features
such as an exterior wall of bevel siding and white shikkui plaster finish at theroof gable. Its floor plan is the typical middle-corridor type. A straightcorridor leads away from a welcoming entrance. On the south side of thecorridor there is a living/reception room, a dining room, and two Japanesestyle rooms, on the north side is a maid’s room, a kitchen and a bathroom,
and at the opposite end is a private entrance.
The living/reception room is elegant, with a central fireplace andsymmetrical decorative windows on each side (Fig. 5). The adjoining dining
room has a large table. The arrangement is optimal for hosting guests, as
they can mingle in the living/reception room with aperitifs and then move onto the dining room. Two Japanese-style rooms on the second floor must havebeen prepared for accommodating guests.
Some renovations were conducted to accommodate changing times andtastes (Fig. 6). The staircase in the middle of the corridor was moved to theside of the entrance to enable guests to ascend easily to the second floor. To
invoke the image of a holiday house with a hot spring, the private entrance
was blocked and the bathroom was expanded.

［Fig. 5］ Living/reception room ofMoichirō Saitō Holiday House(present): the placement of windows
on both sides of the fireplace isinspired.

［Fig. 6］ Moichirō Saitō Holiday House(present): The original design is
generally preserved despite
renovation of the entrance.

122

Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House and his family’s mountain-hut-likelifestyle
Tetsusaburō Tazawa was a businessman in the financial industry andanother founding member of the Nasu Golf Club. At age forty three, he built
a holiday house as a summer family retreat. The large living/dining room issuitable for family time (Fig. 3, 4). The scenic view of the Nasu plateau can beexperienced from the front terrace (Fig. 1, 2).
Tazawa and his wife had five children, which necessitated unique featuresin the holiday house’s children’s room and bedroom. The children’s room has
a fixed desk along the south windows, and it is easy to picture his children
sitting here side by side doing their summer homework (Fig. 7). The windows
next to the desk are divided into upper and lower rows, allowing coolbreezes to enter near the floor. The bedroom mirrors the mountain hut styleof the time (Fig. 8, 9), with a wooden floor area for luggage at the border of atatami mat area. Each family member is allocated one of the side by sidetatami mats, with the length of each mat adjusted according to the height ofchildren, from 176 centimeters to 192 centimeters long. They children musthave spent unforgettable summer vacations there.

［Fig. 7］ Children’s room of
Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House(present): it is easy to picture children
doing their summer homework here.
［Fig. 9］ Bedroomof Tetsusaburō
Tazawa Holiday
House (phototaken just after
completion)

123［Fig. 8］ Bedroomof Tetsusaburō
Tazawa Holiday
House (present):
it has theatmosphere of amountain hut.

Attachment to the buildings leads to inheritance of it
Moichirō Saitō Holiday House has been used continuously overgenerations, and is currently used by Moichirō’s grandchild and the
grandchild’s family. Renovations and repairs have preserved the value of thebuilding.
Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House and its plot were sold to Hideo Kato,
as Kato had been introduced to Tazawa in 1951. Since purchasing the house,
Kato’s family has used it approximately fifty days a year. The unique design ofthe holiday house was maintained, and no major alterations to the design
have been made.
It is admirable that the value of these holiday houses has been cherished,
and these buildings have been passed on to younger generations. In addition,
the Nasu Golf Club is involved in management of these houses. The Club
contributes to the maintenance of the buildings and protecting the generalcharacter of the holiday house district.
【Sources】
Fig. 1:
FIg. 2:
Fig. 3, 5-8:
Fig. 4, 9:

Courtesy of the current owner
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog], vol.
2, 1939
Photographs taken by the Committee
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

124

Analysis

Fascinating Holiday House Architecture
Tradition favors the environment of holiday houses on plateaus
Nasu Golf Club, now known as one of the most prestigious golf clubs inJapan, was founded in 1935 by people such as Mitsuo Ishii, then vicepresident of The Nihon Kangyo Bank. From the beginning, their plan was tosell its adjoining land as plots for holiday houses with hot springs water, andto use the profits for construction and maintenance of the golf course. Eachplot for the holiday houses is larger than 400 tsubo (about 1322 sq. m.), andthe wonderful environment of the area is still maintained.

Variations of holiday houses built by Shimizu-gumi
Shimizu-gumi built ten of the holiday houses on the adjoining lots, while
three others were designed by other architectural design firms. Masao Inouedesigned two of these (Moichirō Saitō Holiday House, Kōzaburō Okada
Holiday House), and Gunpei Matsuda designed the other (Takahisa Mitsui
Holiday House).
One of the founding members of the Nasu Golf Club was Yōnosuke Shimizu,
who served as the vice president of Shimizu-gumi. Eight of the ten holiday
houses are situated surrounding the holiday house of Yōnosuke Shimizu. The
owners must have bought the holiday house lots because of theirrelationship with Yōnosuke Shimizu, and then asked Shimizu-gumi to handle
construction. Construction was completed in 1936 or 1937.
The ten holiday houses can be classified either as holiday houses for guests
or holiday houses for families. Of the two holiday houses introduced in
Chapter 3-1, Moichirō Saitō Holiday House was mainly for guests, while
Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House was for his family.
Of the ten holiday houses, the largest were Takahisa Mitsui Holiday House(420 sq. m.) and Saburō Katō (加藤 左武郎) Holiday House (264 sq. m.). The
smallest was Kin’ya Fujita Holiday House (72 sq. m.). The remaining houses
fell into the size range of 150 to 200 square meters. Large houses were notnecessarily for guests, nor were small ones always for a family. There were
two kinds of receptions hosted for guests: receptions including
accommodation, and hosting guests for good company after golf.

125

Hosting receptions at holiday houses
The holiday house of Takahisa Mitsui, the ninth head of the Isarago Mitsuifamily, is a large building with only three rooms intended for sleeping: one
Western-style master bedroom, and two Japanese-style rooms, one with ten
tatami mats and one with eight tatami mats. The Japanese-style rooms haveengawa (Japanese-style veranda) and oshiire (Japanese-style storage), but
nothing resembling toko-no-ma (decorative alcove). Its drawing calls theroom the “childrens’ room”, so the house was intended to accommodate
family members only.
The living room was spacious, measuring forty-two tatami mats. The
room’s ceiling has an exposed Western-style roof truss, and it is equippedwith a fireplace and pieces of Northern European style thick-frame wooden
furniture (Fig. 1). The room was designed to enable people to enter the livingroom through the balcony directly from the golf course, without removing
their footwear (Fig. 2). The interior of the adjoining dining room is also
Northern European style. The building also has some rooms for multiple staff,
a staff toilet, and staff bathroom. Clearly, this holiday house was designed tohost lively conversations and to entertain golfing chums from the othernearby holiday houses.
Saburō Katō Holiday House is a unique holiday house with adjoining
Japanese-style rooms (Fig. 3). Passing through the sukiya-style entrance, wefind a six-tatami-mat room and an eight-tatami-mat room on the side. The
eight-tatami-mat room is a shoin-style reception room with toko (decorative
alcove), tana (shelf), and a private toilet. The six-tatami-mat room withoshiire must have been a guest room.
Turning the corner of the corridor and going deeper into the housereveals three adjoining eight-tatami-mat rooms. Each room has its own tokono-ma and oshiire, and a fine bathroom and a toilet are nearby. These threerooms are for the master of the house and his family. In addition, there arethree rooms with a hearth, which indicates the master’s fine preference forenjoying tea ceremony. He welcomed guests in a Japanese-style room, andhe could also retire to the privacy of his own refined Japanese room.

126All of the rooms of Yōnosuke Shimizu Holiday House are also in Japanesestyle. In addition, the rooms of Yōnosuke Shimizu Secondary Residence inTokyo, featured on page 208, are primarily in Japanese style. The owner’s
strong preference for Japanese-style rooms is obvious. The holiday houseconsists of an entrance block with a rustic-house-style roof (chestnut shingle
roofing in the shape of a thatched roof), the main block, and the bathroom
block, with the three blocks connected by a corridor. The holiday house andthe secondary house share this layout. In the holiday house, the four-andhalf-tatami-mat room next to the entrance is a waiting room, so after golf,
guests would have been guided into this room first. The most impressive
room is the seven-tatami-mat living room with its two-tatami-mat-size jodandoko (connected area of a raised floor and an alcove). The two mat space hasmodern design elements such as a round window next to the jodan-doko (Fig.
4).

［Fig. 1］ Living room of Takahisa
Mitsui Holiday House (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog): this room looks just like agolf club lounge［Fig. 2］ North façade of Takahisa
Mitsui Holiday House (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog): players can enter the livingroom directly from the golf course［Fig. 3］ Entrance of Saburō Katō
Holiday House (photo taken just after
completion): high quality sukiya-style
design［Fig. 4］ Living room of Yōnosuke
Shimizu Holiday House (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog): modern design with twotatami-mat jodan-doko

127

Flexible design on the slope descending to the south
On the southern slope of the land, some holiday houses adopted a
flexible layout to connect multiple building blocks, such as Tomekichi
Matsumoto Holiday House (Fig. 5), Yōnosuke Shimizu Holiday House, andSaburō Katō Holiday House. Takahisa Mitsui Holiday House has two buildingsaligned at a one hundred and thirty-five degree angle. Saburō Katō Holiday
House has a complicated layout with divided blocks. In some of the holiday
houses, such as Tomekichi Matsumoto Holiday House and Yōnosuke Shimizu
Holiday House, the bathroom is built as a separate block to take advantage
of hot spring waters.
Additionally, some holiday houses feature a balcony extending over thesouthern slope in order to take in the full scenic view. This feature can befound in Tetsusaburō Tazawa Holiday House, Kin’ya Fujita Holiday House,
Takahisa Mitsui Holiday House, and Kōzaburō Okada Holiday House.
The design of these ten holiday houses is far less formal than their mainhouses, and they are well suited for crowds of friends, fun, and leisureactivities.
(Jun Hatano)［Fig. 5］ Plan of Tomekichi Matsumoto Holiday House (from the Catalog)【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2, 4, 5: Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog), vol.
2, 1939
Fig. 3:Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

128

129

3-2

Kasanu Emori House

A house inherited over the course of three generations
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ Façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Façade (photo taken justafter completion)［Fig. 4］ Japanese-style reception
room on the second floor (phototaken just after completion)［Fig. 3］ Japanese-style reception roomon the second floor (present)

130Process of inheritance1932 (completion)

Kasanu Emori↓inheritanceAround 1960
Shigeru Emori↓donation
1990 to 2018 (present) Person A (Kasanu’s granddaughter)
Location

Mitaka City (Tokyo) - #22

Completion

May 1932

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Ando)

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

House → House

Plot Area

160 tsubo (529 sq. m.)

Floor Area

60 tsubo (198 sq. m.)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)

Inheriting a grandfather’s house
This building is a wooden two-storied house built in 1932. Shimizu-gumi
designed and constructed the house, and the design chief was Kihachirō
Ando.
The client, Kasanu Emori, is listed in Taishu jinjiroku Tōkyō hen (Personal
record of the general public, Tokyo edition)，1939 edition. According to thebook, he was born in 1886 and graduated from Ōsaka Higher Commercial
School in 1907. Upon joining Mitsui & Co., Ltd., he held various posts such as
investigation department staff in the headquarters, an operation supervisorof foreign branches, and an accounting department manager.
The house was built during an important period in the education of hischildren. Shigeru, his eldest son who became the next head of the family,
was born in 1917. When the house was built, he and his younger brotherwere enrolled in the preparatory course at Keio University, and their father
Kasanu Emori was a manager at Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

131

Shigeru and his wife felt strong affection toward the family, his father
especially, and toward the house. Thus, he fulfilled his desire to inherit thehouse. The current owner (hereafter referred to as Person A) is a
granddaughter of Kasanu Emori, and has a son (hereafter referred to as
Person B) who will inherit the house in the future. Person B and his wife alsofeel a great attachment toward the house built by his great-grandfather.
While Person B and his wife altered some parts of the house to enable themto live with their parents after their marriage, they have a strong desire tocontinue and to honour their parents’ attachment to the house. Their desire
to continue the familial sense of attachment and affection for the house isreflected in the Japanese-style room on the second floor, called a reception
room. The room is clearly important, as it has been maintained in its originalstate.

The unique plan of Emori House
The house is a unique variation on the so-called middle-corridor-type
house. Passing from the entrance with four tatami mats, fusuma (a paper
sliding door) leads to a hall with a staircase, and the start of the middle
corridor. The typical middle-corridor-type house, prevalent before theSecond World War, had a Western-style reception room next to an entrance,
but Emori House has a storage space made of reinforced concrete instead.
This space makes the floor plan unique (Fig.5).
Next to the entrance are tsugi-no-ma (adjoining room) and a living room.
A room at the east end of the building is a children’s studying room. South of
the tsugi-no-ma and the living room, a 1.2 meters wide engawa (Japanesestyle veranda) is extended. North of these rooms is the middle corridor,
leading to a 6-tatami-mat wife’s room. The east end of this building is thus
composed of the study room to the south and the wife’s room to the north.

132

［Fig. 5］ Original floor plan

The children’s room is notable. This western-style room measures ten
tatami mats. A terrace opens off the children’s studying room onto the southgarden, and a 1.8-meter-wide fusuma divides the room from the Japanesestyle six-tatami-mat wife’s room. The spacious and sunny studying room is apleasant living space in terms of its location and size. There is also a private
wife’s room, although it is on the darker north side of the house. This floor
plan treats the dedicated space for the wife and children as the centre of thehouse, and it must have been planned with awareness of the importance ofthe rooms for the wife and children. The plan was based on the new concept
of designing a house around the entire family, not just the master of thefamily. This idea had been growing in popularity since the Taisho period, andthis house marks the arrival of a new way of thinking. The house must be theoutward expression of the initial owner’s love for his family.

133

To create central living space for family members, the Japanese-style
reception room is moved to the second floor. The clear division of zones -family living space on the first floor and a guest space on the second -- mightreflect the prioritization of the wife and children.
Another unique feature is the storage room, the only space in the housemade of reinforced concrete. This house is a precious example of the use ofreinforced concrete for houses.

Sustain and improve
The current house has kept most of its original appearance, although theexterior wall of the front façade has been renewed (Fig. 1, 2). However, alarge scale extension was made to the interior. The first floor was extended
north by 90 centimeters, and the second floor was extended north by 270
centimeters. The recent improvements to the second floor were made toaccommodate the current owner’s son, who plans to inherit the house, andthis son’s wife. Despite the improvements over three generations, theoriginal interior of the house is preserved in the living room, the storage
space near the entrance, the first floor staircase (Fig. 6), and the second floor
reception room (Fig. 3, 4).
These areas did not avoid extensions and improvements by chance, butby the strong desire to sustain and inherit. There must have been the
conscious intention to keep the original form of the living room and thereception room as much as possible. For the first owner, these two rooms
must have been symbolic, and he may have felt a strong sense of attachment
toward them. These rooms may have been where the occupants felt
appreciation and awe for the space.
［Fig. 6］ Staircase: elegant sukiyastyle design (present)

134

Daily life and residents change over time for every house. The lifestyle ofoccupants changes in response to the times, and a house naturally changes
in response. It is an obvious principle, and therefore natural to preserve theJapanese-style reception room as a symbol of the traditional house andchange the other rooms to suit changing needs.
It is praiseworthy that the original elements of the house have beenprotected without resorting to reconstruction. Successive owners and theirfamily members protected the precious traditional part of the house, while
over time changing the parts of the house directly connected to their daily
life. Going forward, this may be the smoothest and most basic method forpreservation and regeneration of houses. Lifestyle changes or the number ofthe residents do not always necessitate remodelling the entire house. This
family was able to maintain ties to their ancestors and still adapt the living
space to the present. This achievement may seem to be based on self
evident thinking, but it has not been realized and applied to many houses.
In this family, there is appreciation and awe towards Kasanu Emori, theone who built the house with deep consideration for his offspring. His
granddaughter and great-grandson have a strong attachment to the house,
and they have maintained the house as a show of affection.

【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6: Photographs were taken by the Committee in October 2018.
Fig. 2, 4, 5: Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architectural catalog], vol.
1, 1935135

3-3

Yonejirō Sugimura House

A modern house awaiting an opportunity for reuse
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ South façade(present)［Fig. 2］ South façade (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 3］ South façade (present)136

［Fig. 4］ Entrance (present)［Fig. 5］ Entrance door (present)［Fig. 6］ Lattice ceiling of theentrance and the reception space(present)［Fig. 7］ Sliding door of the shoestorage space, entrance (present)

Process of inheritance1937 (completion)

Yonejirō Sugimura↓transfer
1950
Person A↓transfer
1951
Company W↓transfer
1957
Person C↓transfer
1959 to 2017 (present) N.S.K.K. Diocese of Tokyo

137

Location

Setagaya Ward (Tokyo) - #16

Completion

1937

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Saburō Nagano)

Structure

1st floor: reinforced concrete
2nd floor: wood

Main Purpose

House → Church Annex (children’s library)

Plot Area

1000 tsubo (3306 sq. m)

Floor Area

99 tsubo (327 sq. m)
Note: The drawing states 104.644 tsubo (345 sq. m)
Periodically open to the public (Open when the children’s libraryis open)

Public Access

From a private residence to church assembly hall and local children’s library
In 1937, on the eve of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War,
restrictions on the scale and material of buildings were soon to begin. The
same year, the residence of Yonejirō Sugimura was built. Unfortunately, little
is known about the client, beyond that he was running a textile wholesalecompany in Nihonbashi. We only have the remaining building to offer clues
about his personality.
After escaping destruction in the Second World War, Sugimura House was
first transferred to a foreign owner, then to Nippon Sei-Kō-Kai (theAnglican/Episcopal Church in Japan) Diocese of Tokyo. The diocese used it as
the residence of the pastor of Holy Trinity Church Tokyo. After a new pastor’s
residence was built, the building served multiple purposes: pastor’s officeand meeting room, the congregational assembly room, and church storage.
The building is currently used as the reading room of the local children's
library, Daizawa Kodomo Bunko.
This building should be used in a way that respects its history and role inthe community. Despite needing some repairs to address minor damage, theoverall condition of the building is still good. The building has its own charm,and has a history of conversion from a personal house to community activity
space for local children.

138

Architectural characteristics of the Sugimura HouseLet us take a closer look at the building (Fig. 1 to 3). The house is a twostoried mixed-structure building. The first story and the semi-basement
boiler room are made of reinforced concrete, while the second story iswooden. Such a mixed structure for residences was very rare during theperiod before the Second World War. Using reinforced concrete in the
structure of a residential building during that period must have been due toconcern over seismic durability. Reinforced concrete was used only for the
first floor, but it seems to be a reasonable choice of material. Reinforced
concrete strengthened the foundation and reduced the potential spread offire from the first floor kitchen. On the other hand, the second story was alight wooden structure where fire was not used. The use of mixed materials
clearly indicates the client was focused on logical, common sense safetymeasures.
The façade does not attempt to conceal the use of different materials.
The first floor exterior wall is finished with mortar, while the second floor
wall is covered with bevel siding of Douglas fir. The building is topped by agabled roof with pantile roofing. The method of using different exterior wallfinishes on the first and the second story had been in popular use from theend of the Meiji period (1868-1912) to the second half of the Taisho period(1912-1926). Thus, the style was well established when this house was built,
although it was a novel choice to use unified, unadorned plaster to finish thefirst floor exterior wall.
On the southeast corner, an impressive modern space is created by thewide L-shaped terrace. The roof over the southern part of the terrace
extends to allow for a large space under deep eaves supported by twocolumns. Under the eaves, two small cantilever balconies extend from thesecond story of the building, one off the spare room and the other off theliving room.

139［Fig. 8］ Initial floor plan

［Fig. 9］ Living room on the first floor(present)［Fig. 10］ Fireplace in the living roomon the second floor (present)

140

The layout of rooms follows the middle-corridor type floor plan (Fig. 8). A
straight corridor runs east from the western entrance hall, with rooms on
both sides of the corridor. One interesting feature of the entryway is thelarge earthen floor and bench. This space is designed as a casual greeting
space to greet guests and for them to converse. Through the modernizationof Japanese houses after the Meiji period, the main focus of houses had
shifted from receiving guests to serving as living space for the family. The
shift was a critical reaction to earlier designs that prioritized the reception of
guests above the needs of the family. Modernization of designs focused on
the living room as the center of the building and as a symbol of family life.
Having a reception room next to the entrance was deemed worthless andwhat should come to an end. As a response to this somewhat extreme wayof thinking, the entrance hall of the Sugimura House was an attempt to starta new trend in entrances, with a simplified reception space. In a nod tocurrent tastes, the entryway’s door, shoe storage box, and lattice ceiling weredone in the popular art deco style (Fig. 5-7).
A large living room occupies the center of the first floor, with an alcovelike dining space behind. The large living room and fireplace symbolized thefamily-centered design and an expression of a new family space, leading to
the emergence of the modern living room after the Second World War (Fig.
9). It is interesting to note that there is a second living room with anotherfireplace on the second floor (Fig. 10). There are some contemporary housesin Japan with two living rooms, with the front living room for hosting guests
and the back living room reserved for the family. It seems that Sugimura
House implemented this design idea years earlier than other Japanesehouses.
In some ways, this house can be regarded as a pioneer of the modern
house in post-war Japan. The structure and room layout are very innovative,
and the design principle is logical.

Recommendations for reuse
The Sugimura House is a typical middle-corridor house of the pre-war
period. The large entrance hall and the simplified reception space are basedon the layout popularized by the house improvement movement of the prewar period. At the same time, the large central living room with a fireplace isa forerunner of the modern living room of the post-war period. This house isa precious example of the early embodiment of post-war ideas.

141

Additionally, this type of mixed structure, reinforced concrete on the firststory and wood on the second, was a construction method that emerged
after the Great Kanto Earthquake. The concrete structure can be repaired
and remain durable. Therefore, there should be constructive proposals forpractical reuse of this building. It can be used as a museum of the previous
pastor’s house, or a social room for the congregation and local residents. The
presence of the children’s library can be enhanced and the house canbecome a place to continue children’s moral and cultural education.
There can be new potential from renovations as well. The study and theliving room can be combined into a large gathering space. Or, the first floor
can be opened up into a party room, and the space behind the fireplace canbecome a pantry for the kitchen. If the space is to continue as a children’s
library, only minor repairs are needed.

【Sources】
Fig. 2, 8:

Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 2, 1939
Fig. 1, 3-7, 9, 10: Photographs taken by the Committee (November 2017)

142

143

3-4

Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence(present Tōzan-sō)

A house to convey the passion of the new owner
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ Main building:southeast façade(present)［Fig. 2］ Main building: southeast
façade (photo taken just after
completion)［Fig. 4］ Entrance of the main building(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Entrance of the main building(present)

144

Process of inheritance
1933(completion of themain building)1935

Kengo Ishii

Construction of an annex
↓sold
1939
Kamesaburō Yamashita
↓sold
1944
Mokichi Okada↓transferred
1954 to 2018 (present) Church of World Messianity
Location

Atami City (Shizuoka) - #34/#35

Architect

Shimizu-gumi

Main Purpose

Secondary residence → Facility of a religious organization

Plot Area

1100 tsubo (3636 sq. m)

Cultural Property
Designation
Public Access

National Registered Tangible Cultural Property
Private property (Visits are not permitted)

Main building
Completion

August 1933

Structure

Wood, two stories

Floor Area

95 tsubo (331.5 sq. m)

Annex (Tōzan-sō Sansō-an)Completion
November 1935
Structure

Wood, single story

Floor Area

15 tsubo (50 sq. m)

145

History of this buildingThis building was built in 1933 as the secondary residence of Kengo Ishii.
The initial owner, Kengo Ishii, was born in 1874. He graduated from Tokyo
Higher Commercial School (present Hitotsubashi University) and entered DaiIchi Bank in 1895. He was promoted to Yokohama branch manager in 1899,
to director in 1918, managing director in 1919, vice president in 1926, and topresident in 1931. He stepped down to director in 1935, and served as anadvisor from 1938 to 1943. He passed away in August 1945.1 The secondary
house was built during his time as president.
Design and construction was conducted by Shimizu-gumi. In 1935, anannex, also by Shimizu-gumi, was added in the front yard. Presumably,
Shimizu-gumi was involved in this project because of the close relationshipbetween Shimizu-gumi and Eiichi Shibusawa, the first president of Dai-Ichi
Bank.
In May of 1937, just after construction of the annex, Ishii completed
another huge residence in Hakuraku, Yokohama. According to Kōichi Yoshidain his survey of the governor's official residence, Ishii started living in
Hakuraku around the period of 1914 to 1916. He did move to Tokyo
temporarily, but kept using the Yokohama house as a holiday house, andreturned to it around 1937. At that time, to accompany a Western-stylebuilding that existed on the plot since 1925, he also built a Japanese-stylebuilding. He combined them into a Japanese-style/Western-style building
parallel type residence, which was the building style of choice for upper classresidences after the Meiji period. After the Second World War, the house
was purchased by Kanagawa Prefecture, and used as the Governor’s official
residence until 1976.
Considering the secondary residence in Atami City, it appears to havebeen built mainly for convalescence, as Ishii had suffered from intracerebral
hemorrhage in November of 1931. He recovered three months later, butbecame sick again in August of 1932.2 The necessity of hosting the many
visitors to the house led to the construction of an annex in 1935.

146

By 1936 it seems that Ishii’s health had improved enough to enable him
to start the construction project in Yokohama. He placed great importanceon hosting guests, and out of consideration for their comfort he built a newJapanese-style building in Hakuraku, Yokohama. The new building was toserve as his residence and a place for recuperation, located next to what heused as a holiday house at that time. Therefore, there was no further needfor the secondary residence in Atami, and in 1939 the building was sold toKamesaburō Yamashita, the founder of Yamashita Steamship Company, Ltd.
During the period of Yamashita’s ownership, the building was expanded, but
in 1944 the house was sold again. The new owner was Mokichi Okada, thefounder of the Church of World Messianity. Eventually, the property wastransferred to the Church of World Messianity in 1954 and remains under
their ownership at present.
Features of the Ishii Secondary Residence
The Atami City house is on a scenic hill with a nice view of the Pacificocean. It is also conveniently located near Atami station. The building is atypical modern Japanese-style architecture such as the sukiya-style building.
From the exterior it appears to be a traditional two-story wooden Japanesestyle building with a hip-and-gable tiled roof (Fig. 1, 2). The rooms arealigned along a central corridor to direct traffic through the middle of thebuilding, with all rooms done in a Japanese style. The room next to theentrance is a Japanese-style reception room rather than a Western-style
room (Fig. 5). The middle corridor leading from the entrance is 1.2 meters inwidth and it feels quite spacious. Two connecting rooms at the center of thehouse, a living room and a tsugi-no-ma (adjoining room), are intended fordaily family use. On the garden side of these rooms there is a 1.8-meter-wide
hiro-en (wide veranda) (Fig. 6, 7), which was a very popular feature becauseof its versatility since the end of the Taisho period. Next to the connectedrooms there is an independent room with another L-shape veranda. Because
it faces the south, the room has optimal sunlight and a pleasant atmosphere,
so we can assume it was here that Kengo Ishii spent time during his
recuperation (Fig. 8). The layout of the building is centered around themaster’s room for his recovery, and the two adjoining rooms for the family’suse.
On the second floor, there is a guest room and its adjoining room forguest use. Having a second floor guest room with a nice view is anotherfeature of modern Japanese architecture (Fig. 9, 10).

147

［Fig. 5］ Main building: initial floor plan

［Fig. 7］ Main building: living room
(connected to the adjoining room) on
the 1st floor (photo taken just after
completion)［Fig. 6］ Main building: living room
(connected to the adjoining room) on
the 1st floor (present)148

［Fig. 8］ Main building: independent
living room on the 1st floor (present)［Fig. 10］ Main building: guest roomon the 2nd floor (photo taken justafter completion)［Fig. 9］ Main building: guest room on
the 2nd floor (present)［Fig. 12］ Main building: guest roomon the 1st floor (photo taken justafter completion)［Fig. 11］ Main building: guest roomon the 1st floor (present)［Fig. 13］ Annex: south façade (present)149

Materials and methods used for each room are, in general, notostentatious, with precious wood used sparingly and carefully. The building isin general very elegant, rather than flamboyant, and decoration is not
overdone. Structural components exposed on shinkabe (wall with visible
pillars), such as pillars and nageshi (horizontal timber above openings), alsofunction as architectural components. On the southeast side of the housefacing the ocean, its design takes the landscape into consideration (Fig. 6-12).
Shoji panels (translucent paper sliding panels) with large panes of glass on
the bottom half are used in the interior. Similarly large panes of glass are also
used for the exterior façade, which is a new exterior look for modern
Japanese-style architecture.

［Fig. 14］ Annex: initial floor plan

［Fig. 15］ Annex: room with theKasumi-dana (present)［Fig. 16］ Annex: interior (present)150

Dining space in the annex built later
The front yard annex, built in 1935, was designed and constructed by
Shimizu-gumi, while it is not possible to identify the staff involved. The annex
is a single-story wooden building with a hip-and-gable roof and cedar barkroofing. This annex is called Sansō-an due to large openings on three sides.
The description on the drawing indicates that the building was built as aseparate dining space (Fig. 13, 14). All rooms in the main building are ofJapanese-style, and the rooms on the second floor were probably used formeals with guests. The original purpose of the secondary residence was tospeed Kengo Ishii’s recovery from health problems, but he was expected tocontinue to host visitors during this time, because of his position as company
president. He must have built this annex as a place for hosting and dining
with guests.
The annex is a small single room building, but it is attractively designedwith many sukiya-style elements integrated into its attractive interior andexterior (Fig. 15, 16). Yet despite the sukiya-style design, the original lighting
was called shugei-teki kigu (handicraft equipment) and designed withelements of traditional crafts such as Japanese washi paper. The minka-style
design, which exposes thick beams of the roof frame and emphasizesarchitectural components, must have been influenced by the fashionable
mingei (folkcraft) movement of that time.
The interior of the annex seems to be planned as a space for standing use
and for Western-style furniture on the carpet, despite being floored withtatami-mats. The fixed bench and higher openings are not congenial to floorseating use. There is a rather tall cupboard below the Kasumi-dana shelf.
Placed on the main wall of the building, the Kasumi-dana, a type of thestaggered alcove shelf, is a notable interior feature. The name of the shelf isthe same as a shelf found in the Kyakuden Pavilion of the Shugaku-in
Imperial Villa. Like the annex, this pavilion is a single-story wooden building
with a hip-and-gable roof.
The Kasumi-dana of the Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, one of three mostbeautiful shelves in Japan, has five shelf boards that appear to be floating inthe 2.7-meter-wide alcove. The annex shelf only has three shelf boards, but
the basic composition is very similar, and there is a smaller cupboard stacked
on a large cupboard below the shelf, as in the pavilion. Clearly, the pavilion
was the model for the design of the annex shelf. The choice of building
materials was also carefully considered. There are some precious woods andpossibly some reused timber, although use of the latter cannot be confirmedwith certainty.

151

It is also noteworthy that modern heating fixtures are integrated into theinterior design. Near the bay window by the entrance to the annex, heating
ducts are embedded in the side pillars and the outlet is inside the musōmado (hit-and-miss panel) below the window.
The annex must have been built to supplement the hosting function of
the main building, which was originally intended as a space for the master’srecovery and for use by his family. Therefore, the annex’s design, building
materials, construction method, and fixtures are more refined than the mainbuilding. This annex is a very small building with only a single room, but it isan extremely high-quality small piece of work inspired by the Kasumi-dana of
the traditional sukiya architecture. Its design includes the sukiya-style andother styles that were popular at the time, such as the mingei-style and theminka-style. Modern heating fixtures are concealed in the room, and amodern kitchen is located behind the wall of the shelf.
Living environment of the new owner, Mokichi Okada
Before his death, Mokichi Okada declared his intention to establish areligion for the purpose of building a perfect heaven on earth. He sought a
suitable site to construct his utopian model of heaven, a place to pray forworld peace. In 1944, he acquired the Japanese-style garden area of the
Gōra Park in Gōra, Hakone. He prepared the garden and some buildings, andopened the completed Shinsen-kyō to the public in 1953. The Ishii Secondary
Residence was purchased around the same time as Gōra Park, so thisproperty may have been a potential site for members of the utopian society
to pray for world peace. The stunning location of the building seemed aperfect location to do so, as its magnificent scenic surroundings can inspire
anyone to see the majesty and beauty of nature. Okada must have been
influenced by the power of nature at the site when he decided to purchasethe plot and these buildings.
The passion of Okada was passed on to the church he founded, theChurch of World Messianity. This residence should remain open to the public
for a long time in order to serve as a place to remember the founder’s
dreams and as a space to inspire the dreams of others.

152

【Notes】
1. Kyu Kanagawa-ken chiji kōsha kenchiku chōsa hōkokusho [Former Kanagawa governor
official residence architectural survey report], 1998
2. Dai-ichi ginkō shi [History of Dai-ichi Bank], Dai-ichi Ginko 80-nen shi hensan shitsu[Dai-ichi Bank 80th anniversary book editorial office], 1957
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6, 11, 13, 15, 16:
Fig. 4, 5:
Fig. 2, 7, 10, 12:
Fig. 8, 9:
Fig. 14:

Photographs taken by the Committee (May 2018)
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residentialarchitecture catalog), vol. 1, 1935
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Provided by the Church of World Messianity
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residentialarchitecture catalog), vol. 2, 1939

153

Analysis
ColumnKengo Ishii Primary Residence: Another
Residence

From 1914 to 1916, Kengo Ishii was living in what is now called
Shinoharadai-machi, Kōhoku, Yokohama. In 1916 he moved to Tokyo, but
retained the house in Yokohama as a holiday house. When he returned to
the Yokohama house around 1937, he added a new Japanese-style building.
The new Japanese-style building was designed by design department staff
member Hiroshi Sakurai, built by Shimizu-gumi, and completed in May 1937.
The two-story wooden building was a large scale sukiya-style building, andthe storehouse was made of reinforced concrete (Fig. 1).
The complicated layout of the residence somewhat resembles a T shape(Fig. 2). The block for hosting guests and the block for daily family sit parallel
to each other and run east to west, and the connecting entrance block runs
north to south. The short block for guests is south of the entrance block, andconsists of a 12.5-tatami-mat reception room and a 11-tatami-mat adjoining
room. The northern block for the family includes rooms for day-to-day use.
This configuration enables many rooms to face the south. A storehouse wasadded in 1939 at the northwest end of the family block, connected by acorridor. Rooms in the Japanese-style building are Japanese-style rooms withtatami mats, and designed to accommodate traditional floor-seating.
The exterior is strongly inspired by sukiya-style architecture, with a seriesof overlapping layers of hip-and-gable roofs. An article in Jūtaku kenchiku
zushū (Residential architecture catalog) stated that it was difficult to choose
a proper roofing material for sukiya-style architecture. To express “lightness
and grace”, the essence of the sukiya-style architecture, materials used for
traditional architecture seemed appropriate, such as thatch, cypress bark,cedar bark, and singles. However, the material had to be incombustible forfireproofing, rather than the combustible materials used for traditional roofs.
Therefore, natural slate was selected for the roof, and the exposed area of
each slate shingle was shortened to replicate the charm of traditional cedar
and cypress bark roofing. Fireproof material was also used for the exterior
walls, which are shin-kabe style walls (with exposed pillars) with a scraped
mortar finish. The materials were chosen to fireproof the house while
retaining elements of a more traditional style.

154

［Fig. 1］ Kengo Ishii Main Residence (photo taken just after completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 2］ Floor plan of the 1st floor (from the Catalog)

Ishii died in 1945, and the house was put up for sale around 1947.
Iwatarō Uchiyama, the first elected governor of Kanagawa Prefecture,purchased the house and it became the official residence for the governor of
Kanagawa in June of 1947. A Western-style building at the west end of theplot was rented as a guesthouse. The Western-style building was used until
1967, after which it was demolished. The Japanese-style building was useduntil 1997, after which it was also demolished.
(Seizō Uchida)【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2: Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog), vol.
2, 1939155

3-5

Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House

Conversion of elegant Japanese-style design to a restaurant with atea room

Asae Ozawa［Fig. 1］ Southeast
façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Southeast façade (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Ten-tatami-mat room on thefirst floor (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Ten-tatami-mat room on the firstfloor (present)156

Process of inheritance1937 (completion)

Tamotsu Takahashi↓
From 1956
One person and two companies↓
1976 to 2018 (present) Seikō-tei
Location

Atami (Shizuoka) - #39

Completion

July 1937

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Andō, Shibuya)

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Holiday house → Japanese-style hotel → Recreational facility →Japanese-style restaurant

Plot Area
Floor Area
Public Access

830 tsubo (2744 sq. m)
96 tsubo (317 sq. m)
Note: The initial drawing states 87.78 tsubo (290 sq. m).
Open as a restaurant (customers only)

From a holiday house to a Japanese-style hotel, a recreational facility, and a
restaurant
The hot spring town of Atami has been an area for holiday houses sincethe 1880s, although accessibility was an issue during the Meiji period. FromKōzu station on the Tokaido Line, travelers had to take several horsecars or
handcars via Odawara. The situation improved after construction of theAtami Line, the train line connecting Kōzu and Atami, in 1925. The line thenbecame part of the Tokaido Line after the Tanna Tunnel opened in 1934.
After accessibility improved dramatically holiday house construction
increased in kind in a short period of time. Previously undeveloped hills andslopes became favored sites. Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House is one of thehouses built during this period of increased activity.

157

Tamotsu Takahashi served as the president of several companies,
including Takahashi Shōji, Shōwa Jinken, and Showa Itagarasu. The lot on aslope in Minaguchi-chō was originally owned by Rokurō Watanabe, presidentof the Tokyo Watanabe Bank. Rokurō Watanabe is known for establishingŌfuna Den’en-toshi Co., Ltd. in 1921 and developing suburban houses. Hebought this plot for a holiday house around the same time, but sold it to
Tamotsu Takahashi in 1929. Takahashi then gradually acquired more land to
the north of the initial lot, expanding the lot to about 2750 square meters by
the time the house was built in July of 1927 (Fig. 1, 2). Shimizu-gumi had
previously constructed another holiday house for him in Sengokubara,
Hakone, in 1934, and client satisfaction with the first building presumably led
to another order for Shimizu-gumi. The Atami house was designed by
Kihachirō Andō.
In 1956 this holiday house was released from the Takahashi family. It was
first converted to a Japanese-style hotel called Kinkō-sō, and a two-storied
annex was added on the north side of the lot. At the time, Atami was a very
popular honeymoon destination, and the number of hotels increased rapidly.
During the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s, many of the hotels
were converted to company recreational facilities. The series of conversions
from a holiday house to a hotel and a recreational facility, illustrates theevolution of Atami as a tourist destination.
In 1976, the current owner, who was familiar with the building since its
time as a hotel, purchased it and opened the Japanese-style restaurant
Seikō-tei. The elegant Japanese-style atmosphere and the garden were
carefully preserved. Seikō-tei has been passed from mother to daughter, andcontinues to operate as a restaurant.

An architectural gem of Kihachirō Andō
Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House is located on a slope north of Sōshi-sha,
the former holiday house of author Shōyō Tsubouchi. The gate with gentlysloped copper roofing remains from its holiday-house period, but its features
suit the atmosphere of the restaurant (Fig. 5). From the gate, a path passes apond in the garden to the entrance of the main block (Fig. 6).

158

［Fig. 5］ Gate (present)［Fig. 6］ Around the entrance: the twostoried building in the background is
the annex built during the hotel period.

［Fig. 7］ Hanazama at the tsuke-shoinin the main room on the first floor(present)［Fig. 8］ Main room on the second floor［Fig. 9］ Initial floor plan

159

The main block consists of connected Japanese-style rooms with hiro-en(broad veranda) on the south, both on the first and the second floor (Fig. 1,2). The toko-no-ma (decorative alcove) and chigai-dana (staggered shelf) areon the north side of the building to allow for pleasant garden views. The firstand second floors have rather contrasting interior designs. The first floor isdesigned neatly in the shoin-zukuri style (Fig. 3, 4). Square pillars and squarenageshi (horizontal timber above openings) are used, and fukuro-dana (lowwide cupboard) and tsuke-shoin (built-in table) border a large 2.7-meterwide tatami-doko (decorative alcove floored with tatami mat). Narrowframes and muntins are used in the shōji (translucent paper sliding door).
The elegant hanazama (flower pattern lattice panel) at the tsuke-shoin wasprobably inspired by the hanazama of Jishō-ji Tōgudō, one of the buildings ofa famous temple in Kyoto and a former residence of the shōgun Yoshimasa
Ashikaga in the fifteenth century (Fig. 7). In contrast, the second floor is in
the sukiya-zukuri style. Bark-surface nageshi is placed over bark-surface
pillars. Tatami-doko (decorative alcove floored with tatami mats) on thesecond floor has a biwa-doko (small raised area in the alcove), and there isalso ji-bukuro (low cupboard on the floor) with yoshino-mado (round window
with sliding doors) (Fig. 8). The interior of the second floor has more stylish
touches: its ranma (transom window) features Kōrin-kiri symbols; the handle
of fusuma (paper sliding partition) is shaped like the hull of a ship; and theglass shoji doors on the garden side have molded frames.
The teahouse on the north side of the main block is reached via a roofed
walkway paved with stepping stones (Fig. 10). The tea house roof is a hipand-gable roof with small tile roofing. The eaves and the verge are roofedwith shingles, and some eaves on the south and east side extend widely overthe ground (Fig. 11). The teahouse consists of 4.5 tatami mats plus one
daime tatami (three-quarters size tatami). Temae-za (tea-making area) is
next to fumikomi-doko (decorative alcove at floor height), and a bent pillar
stands at the temae-za. Both nijiri-guchi (small entrance where kneeling isrequired) and kinin-guchi (entrance where kneeling is not required) arepresent, but the number of openings is less than a typical modern teahouse.
Overall, this teahouse’s graceful elements are more notable than its wabitaste elements (Fig. 12). For example, its saobuchi-tenjo (batten ceiling) uses
timbers with bark, and its kakekomi-tenjo (ceiling composed as extension ofeaves) uses cattails to fasten bamboo rafters. The pillar made of Asunaro
wood does not have any knots or curves.

160

［Fig. 11］ Façade of the teahouse (present)［Fig. 10］ Roofed walkway to theteahouse (present)［Fig. 12］ Interior of the teahouse (present)

When compared with photographs taken just after completion, modern
photographs indicate that the original form of Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday
House is almost perfectly preserved, without any alteration to either themain block or the teahouse. The annex built during the hotel period housed
the necessary facilities to make it suitable for occupation, and new pieces ofequipment were installed in the annex. The spacious plot, originally secured
for the holiday house, enabled ideal conditions for such near-complete
preservation during later conversions.
Conversion to a Japanese-style restaurant made the best use of the floor
plan and the design of the residence with an inner garden and a teahouse. In
the garden, another teahouse and a machiai (small hut for waiting) were also
built, and they harmonize nicely with existing buildings. The meticulous
landscaping around the gate and in the garden is further evidence of thecurrent owner’s deep affection and care for this building.
This building is a wonderful example of both high-quality residentialarchitecture and superb preservation and utilization of buildings.
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5-8, 10-12: Photographs taken by the Committee (June 2018)
Fig. 2, 9:
Shimizu-gumi, Jutaku kenchiku zushu [Residential architecture
catalog], vol. 2, 1939
Fig. 4:Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

161

Analysis

Japanese-style Design of Shimizu-gumi
Kihachirō Andō (p.42, the architect who designed Tamotsu Takahashi
Holiday House, entered Shimizu-gumi in 1917, and was in charge of eightytwo buildings in the Catalog. His works, many of which are Japanese-style orJapanese/Western-eclectic-style buildings, include Hideko Fujise Secondary
House (p.50). Hiroshi Ōtomo, another architect who designed many houses
for Shimizu-gumi, designed many Japanese-style buildings as well, while hewas known for his thorough knowledge of a wide variety of designs,
including the Arts and Crafts style. His knowledge was a great asset for
designing Western-style buildings, as evidenced by the Kaichirō Nezu
Secondary Residence (p.74).
The Japanese-style designs of Shimizu-gumi had some common
characteristics. In terms of details, saobuchi (battens on the ceiling) andrafters often have an elliptical cross section called Kōmaru-men (Fig. 1). Sucha curved surface is unique, as battens and rafters usually have a section withstraight edges, such as tsunobuchi (square batten) and sections with sarubōmen (a certain section with trimmed corner). In the corridor of a back room,
the section called Kamaboko-men, one with a lower height of curve, was also
used. When a roof structure is exposed without any ceiling, sheathing roof
boards are placed in the direction of the Kōmaru-men rafters, in order toappear smooth and unrestricted (Fig. 2).

［Fig. 1］ Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday
House: saobuchi ceiling［Fig. 2］ Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday
House: exposed roof structure162

When it comes to ranma (transom window), ita-ranma (boarded transom
window) is the standard, rather than a detailed design such as muntin. On
the second floor of Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House, an openwork plate of
the Korin-kiri symbol was used, but most houses had a simple boarded
transom window (Fig. 3). In Hideko Fujise Secondary House (p.50), thetransom board is a moderate comb-shape. In Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary
House (p. 174), the transom board just has some molding at the end of theboard (Fig. 4, 5). These boards are straight-grained paulownia or cedar
boards from a lumber machine, rather than a precious wood. Even for tokobashira (pillar at a decorative alcove), precious or unique types of wood wererarely used. In Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday House and Tsunekichi Niitsu
Secondary House, round lumber was used.
The frequent use of processed lumber is due to the existence of acompany owned sawmill. The sawmill of Shimizu-gumi began in 1884, in awood workshop located in Fukagawa, Tokyo, at the former site of a lumber
purveyor for the Edo Shogunate. In 1896, the sawmill installed a steam
powered lumber machine, which was quite early for factories in Japan.
Designs using the Kōmaru-men section and processed lumber were madepossible by the consistent lumber processing at this sawmill.

［Fig. 3］ Tamotsu Takahashi Holiday
House: openwork transom plate with
the Korin-kiri symbol［Fig. 5］ Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary
House: molded transom board on thefirst floor［Fig. 4］ Hideko Fujise Secondary
House: comb-shaped transom board［Fig. 6］ Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary
House: Tsuki-no-ji-kuzusi no Ranmaon the second floor

163

Design around toko (decorative alcove) generally has sharp outlines. In
some toko, a L-shape toko-gamachi (decorative edge at the bottom of adecorative alcove) was used, and toko-bashira (main pillar at the front cornerof the alcove) and aite-bashira (minor pillar on the wall at the front of thealcove) were not placed. Some shelves had shelf boards without fude-gaeshi(decorative edge stopper). In designs with tsuke-shoin (built-in desk), making
windows at the side of toko, such as shoin-mado (window at the built-indesk) and Yoshino-mado (round window with sliding doors), were forproviding natural light, not merely design features. On the first floor of
Tamotsu Takahashi Secondary House and the second floor of Tsunekichi
Niitsu Secondary House, each engawa (Japanese-style veranda) was
extended around the toko to make the area brighter. Such examples ofJapanese-style design were based on modern technologies, such as lumber
processing, and modern concepts, such as the increased awareness ofsanitation needs.
Yet at the same time, some designs are inspired by old architecture. A
ranma in Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House copied the ranma in the Shingoten of the Katsura Imperial Villa, known as Tsuki-no-ji-kuzusi no Ranma(transom window with the deformed kanji of “moon”) (Fig. 6). The shelf in
the annex of Kengo Ishii Secondary Residence (p.144) was modeled on the
Kasumi-dana of the Middle Villa of Shugaku-in Imperial Villa. Some buildings
had some minka-style design using many logs with bark and cattails. These
examples show the rich knowledge of Japanese-style design vocabulary at
Shimizu-gumi.
(Asae Ozawa)【Sources】
Fig. 1 to 6: Photographs taken by the Committee

164

165

3-6

Kōichi Saitō Secondary House

A house converted from a secondary house to a main house, andthen a two-family house

Yoshiko Mizunuma［Fig. 1］ South façade(present)［Fig. 2］ South façade (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Living room (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Living room and the extended
area on the right (present)

166

Process of inheritance1928 (completion)

Kōichi Saitō↓
1947
Tsunenori Saitō (斎藤 恒徳)↓
2002 to 2018 (present) Family H
Location

Hayama Town, Miura District (Kanagawa) - #26

Completion

1928

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Ando)

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Secondary house → Private house

Floor Area

55 tsubo (182 sq. m.)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)［Fig. 5］ Staircase (present)Longing for a country cottage
Kōichi Saitō Secondary House was built by his father Kōzō Saitō, for therecuperation of Kōichi’s son, Tsunenori.1 Kōzō Saitō graduated from thedepartment of machinery engineering at the Imperial College of Engineering,worked at the Japan Mint in Osaka, and then entered the cotton-spinningcompany, Toyobo. He became the president in 1920, working with his firstson Kōichi and grandson Tsunenori.2

167

For construction of the secondary house Kōzō requested that Shimizugumi build a building like an English country cottage, based on his referencematerial and time spent in England, time that had left him with a feeling of
longing and a desire to have an English style house. The chief architect was
Kihachirō Andō ofthe design department at Shimizu-gumi headquarters, who
was also a graduate of the design department of Tokyo Fine Arts School. His
work at Shimizu-gumi spans Japanese-style buildings to Western-stylebuildings, the latter being designed in various styles (p.42).
After completion in January of 1928, the house was used as a summer
holiday house for the Saitō family. The house was requisitioned by the
Armed Forces of the United States after the Second World War as aresidence for a female officer. When the requisition ended in 1957,
Tsunenori used the house as his family’s main residence, and around 1962
Kōichi and his wife started living with them. Tsunenori later moved to Tokyo
when his first daughter began school there. Upon Kōichi’s death in Hayama
in 1975, the house was rented out, although the Saitō family retained
ownership. The following sections describe the manner in which the current
owner came to possess the house.

The picturesque exterior
Kōichi Saitō Secondary House is a wooden two-storied building with agable roof supported by a king post truss. The dining room juts out to thesouth from the main east-west block. The roof is steep and roofed withreddish brown tiles. The six shed dormer windows on the roof create adynamic façade. The east-west block has two shed dormers on each side of
the gable roof, and the north-south block has one on each side.
The main features of the exterior are grouped on the south side, and thesouth façade faces the ocean, which is unique in Hayama. The exterior wall iswhite, and a white chimney tops the roof at the west end of the building.
The entrance is in the center of the south side of the building. The roof of thesecond floor extends down to form the roof of the entrance. To the west of
the entrance was a pillared open lattice-top pergola, which was later
converted to a veranda. East of the entrance, a bay window protrudes fromthe south-north block of the house. The picturesque exterior and attractive
landscaping in front give the residence a great deal of character (Fig. 1).

168

［Fig. 6］ Transition of the floor plan

［Fig. 7］ Entrance (present)［Fig. 8］ Former dining room on the
1st floor (present)［Fig. 9］ Former bedroom on the 2nd
floor (present)
169

The interior seeks to realize the client’s aspiration to live in an English
country cottage (Fig. 9). Some of the details are in the Arts and Crafts style,which required skilled hand craftsmanship. The graceful staircase wasdesigned in the art deco style (Fig. 5), and the living room on the first floor
was designed in the medieval style with exposed beams of adzed finish (Fig.
3). An inglenook was also placed at the back of the main bedroom (currently
the living room).
The two floors had two distinctive functions as outlined in the initial floor
plan. The first floor contained a living room, dining room, kitchen, and abathroom, while the second floor housed two bedrooms and a spare room.
All rooms were Western-style rooms, which was rare for a mid-sized holiday
house around the Shōnan district at the beginning of the Showa period. An
entrance hall on the first floor and a staircase hall on the second floor wereintended to direct traffic through the center of a clear and logical floor plan.

From secondary house to main house, then to a two-family house
The Saitō family considered selling the house around 2001, which wascoincidentally when the town of Hayama was conducting a survey of thetown’s historical buildings. Kōichi Saitō Secondary House was chosen as oneof the two historically precious buildings designated for investigation and athorough survey. The survey illuminated the history of the house, along with
its provenance as a Shimizu-gumi designed and built residence. The value ofthe house was beyond question.
Possibly thanks in part to the survey, Kōichi Saitō Secondary House foundits current owner, a long-time resident of Hayama. The individual was looking
for a house near the center of town, and found an advertisement for aproperty “with an old building” in a newspaper flyer. After seeing the interiorof Kōichi Saitō Secondary House, the individual decided to purchase it
immediately.
Currently, Kōichi Saitō Secondary House is used as a two-family house,
after renovations equipped the house with a combined living room/dining
room/kitchen for each floor. Notably, the renovation left the distinctive south
façade almost untouched.
The house was modified in several ways after its initial construction. First,
just after completion, the living room was extended to the north by 2.7
meters, and the original wall and windows were pushed out and used for
expanded space. Second, after the requisition period ended and before thefamily moved back into the house, a Japanese-style room was added to theeast of the dining room and the kitchen was expanded.

170

At first, the current owner did not alter the house after acquisition.
However, the house was converted to a two-family residence in 2018, when
the current owner began living with their eldest daughter and her husband(Fig. 6).
The first floor became the daughter’s family’s residence. The dining room
did not change (Fig. 8), but a new kitchen was made on the north of theliving room (Fig. 3), and the north east corner was converted toaccommodate a bedroom and study. The interiors were altered but thegeneral dimensions of the rooms did not change significantly. The current
owner moved to the second floor, and the former bedroom with theinglenook became a living/dining room and a kitchen (Fig. 9). The renovation
was so well thought out that the new interior looked much like the original.
Due to the topography of the plot, the second floor has direct street level
access on the north side, so the parents did not hesitate to move to thesecond floor.
In general, the original building’s country-cottage-like atmosphere wasprotected, while some minor changes were implemented. Window, doors,and lighting fixtures are usually first to be replaced, but in this case, thesefeatures have remained in continuous use and simply relocated whennecessary. Each owner has taken care of the house down to the smallest
detail.
Charm of the house enabled continuous dwelling
Through the course of its history, Kōichi Saitō Secondary House was used
for different purposes. It was built in 1928 as a secondary house, and after
returning to family ownership, it was used as the primary residence for two
families and three generations, and then it served as a rental property.
Under the current owner, it is a converted two-family house with two
separate living/dining rooms and a kitchen.
Most importantly, Kōichi Saitō Secondary House was a complete Westernstyle house from its initial construction date. For this reason, people lived
there continuously, without any major remodelling being done. All rooms
were Western-style rooms, including multiple personal rooms. Each room
has ample dimensions, and the flow of traffic through the house is clear. In
other words, the house was Westernized and optimized from the very
beginning, and it was always comfortable to live in the house at any point of
its history. In addition, the picturesque Western-style façade and the refinedand rich interior space must have strongly appealed to the residents andmotivated them to take good care of the house.

171【Notes】
1. Based on an interview with the Saitō family in 2001.
2. According to Hyakunen-shi: Toyobo [One hundred years of Toyobo], edited by Tōyō
Bōseki Kabushikigaisha Shashi Henshushitsu [Toyobo Corporate Archive Office], 1986
【References】
１． Yoshiko Mizunuma, Asae Ozawa, Hayama-machi rekishiteki kenzoubutsu hōkokusho:
kyu-Saitō-ke Hayama-bessō Hayama Masao-ke Jūtaku [Report on historical buildingsn Hayama Town: Former Saito family Hayama holiday house, Masao Hayama House],
2002【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 7-9: Photographs taken by the Committee
Fig. 2, 4:
Shimizu-gumi, Jutaku kenchiku zushu [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 6:Created by the author

172

173

3-7

Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House

Preservation achieved by a real estate listing
Asae Ozawa［Fig. 1］ East façade(present)［Fig. 2］ East façade (photo taken
just after completion)［Fig. 4］ Sunroom (photo taken justafter completion)［Fig. 3］ Sunroom (present)174

Process of inheritance
1922

Sakuzō Yoshino↓
1937 (completion)
Tsunekichi Niitsu↓ Owned by the Niitsu family
From 1948
5 People and 3 companies↓
2017 to 2018 (present) MLD Co., Ltd.
Location

Izunokuni City (Shizuoka) - #42

Completion

June 1937

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Shigeru Yada, Hiroshi Ōtomo, drafting by Subaru
Morinaga 守永 昴)Structure
Main Purpose

Wood, two stories
Holiday house → Company holiday house

Plot Area

720 tsubo (2380 sq. m)

Floor Area

121 tsubo (399 sq. m)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)［Fig. 5］ Gate (photo taken just after completion):
Mt. Fuji is visible through the gate in the
background175

Holiday house of the Oil King
Tsunekichi Niitsu (1870-1939) was a founder of Niitsu Sekiyu, apredecessor of Showa Shell Sekiyu, and made his fortune in the oil refining
business in Niitsu, Niigata. Tsunekichi, also called the Oil King, was far fromgreedy and actually lived in his own factory for many years. In 1937, uponreaching age 67, he began building a proper house in Niigata City. Around thesame time, he constructed a second house in Izu for him to reside in during
recovery from an illness.
His second house was located near Hatake Onsen in Izu, a historicalhotspring known for a story about Minamoto no Yoritomo using the waters
to heal the fatigue of his horses. In the Taishō period, Sakuzō Yoshino, a
political scientist and leader of the Taishō Democracy Movement, developed
the Risō-Kyō Bessouchi (Utopia Holiday House Area) to pursue ideal rural life.
He also lived in a house built by Kameki Tsuchiura, his son-in-law. Sakuzō
Yoshino died in 1933, and the Utopia Holiday House Area development
project was cancelled. In March of 1937, Tsunekichi Niitsu purchased land
from Toshizō Yoshino, Sakuzo’s eldest son, and planned his second house.
Shimizu-gumi designed and constructed the house, and Shigeru Yada andHiroshi Ōtomo were in charge of the project. Based on the information foundon the drawings, the design process began in October 1936, before thepurchase of the land, and continued until April 1937. The design andconstruction of this house was carried on almost concurrently with that ofhis main house in Niigata.
After the death of Tsunekichi in 1939, his son-in-law Yoshio inherited thehouse, but sold it in 1948. In the years that followed, the property was
repeatedly sold to a series of individuals and companies. In 1987, after
cycling through seven different owners, the house was acquired by Person A,
the owner of the Izu Golf Club. When Person A acquired the house it was in asad state -- the building was severely damaged and the garden wascompletely overgrown with weeds. Person A repaired and renovated, mainly
focusing on what was needed to make the house inhabitable, such as
repairing roof tiles, renovating the kitchen, and replacing fixtures. The
original form of the house was restored.
Person A owned the house for about 30 years, but decided to part with it
in 2017. The current owner discovered and acquired the property through an
online real estate listing. They were looking for a holiday house with a hot
spring around Izu, but not necessarily seeking a historic building. However,upon inspection and confirmation that the house was mold-free and in goodcondition for an old Japanese house, the current owner decided to buy it,
seeing an opportunity to preserve an older building.

176

Shimizu-gumi’s challenge for Japanese/Western eclectic style
Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House was an outstanding house among
those designed and built by Shimizu-gumi, which the current ownerappreciated at time of discovery (Fig. 1, 2). Located at the foot of Mt. Daisen,
the front of the house features a row of cherry trees planted during the
Taisho period in the holiday house area development project phase. In a
picture courtesy of Shimizu-gumi taken just after completion, Mt. Fuji isclearly visible through the front gate (Fig.5). The main building was notparallel to the front road, in order to align the axis of the house with Mt.
Daisen in the northwest. Mt. Daisen was prominently featured in thepleasant scenery of the relaxing lawn garden. The present day house haspreserved this view of the mountain in the distance (Fig. 6).

［Fig. 6］ View of Mt. Daisen from thegarden (present)［Fig. 7］ Stained glass in the reception
room (present)［Fig. 8］ Reception room (present)［Fig. 9］ Draft drawing for the sunroom
177

The main building is arranged around the two-storied living-room block.
On the northeast side of the living room block is the entrance and a
reception room, to the southwest a sunroom and the master bathroom, andto the northwest the kitchen and a cha-no-ma (family living room). Theserooms are connected by a corridor. Copper panels were used for the roofs ofthe sunroom, the reception room, and the entrance, with pantiles used forthe other rooms. The two-storied section of the main building had a hip-andgable roof with eaves roofed with copper panels. The other sections weretopped with a complicated arrangement of hip roofs and gable roofs. The
sunroom and the reception room have Western-style interiors, but theirdesigns and the floorplan enable them to connect smoothly with the otherJapanese-style rooms. Exterior doors and windows are all sliding types, andall exterior walls are covered with vertical burnt cedar panels. This ingenious
mix of Japanese and Western style elements is a unique quality of the Niitsu
Secondary House (Fig. 14).
The dynamic process used to achieve this eclectic style can be seen in thetwenty three design drawing sheets. For example, the reception room wasdesigned with Tudor style elements, such as thick adzed pillars and lintels
and exposed joists in the ceiling. There is a heavy mantlepiece and ceramic
tile decoration, a sandblasted window with an emblem, and stained glass inthe transom window. The reception room was full of decorative details (Fig. 7,
8).
In contrast, initially, the sunroom was also to be designed in the Tudor
style. According to the drawing for the sunroom, its pillar, waist-high walls,
and door panels were to be adzed, and its walls were supposed to befinished by shikkui plaster and paint (Fig. 9). However, when the house wasbuilt, the design of the room incorporated some Japanese-style elements.
The adzed finish was limited to the surface of pillars, the waist-high walls
were finished with tiles, and the door panels and the decorative shelf were
finished with veneer panels placed in a checkered pattern (Fig. 3, 4).
This residence also boasts brilliant design details. In the sunroom, theglass ceiling has an art deco style geometric floral pattern, and the glass
panel of the lighting fixture appears to be the original (Fig. 10). The
sandblasted glass window in the north wall of the sunroom suggests a
Japanese style painting, with its peacock, swallow, and plants beneath cloudsof mist (Fig. 11). The sandblasted glass in the master bathroom also has adelicate Japanese-style design with mist and autumn flora such as
platycodon, dianthus, small chrysanthemum, and Japanese pampas grass(Fig. 12). These drawings bear the name seals of Hiroshi Ōtomo and drafting
staff member Subaru Morinaga, and showcase their refined design skills.

178

［Fig. 10］ Glass ceiling in the sunroom(present)［Fig. 11］ Sandblasted sunroom window(present)［Fig. 12］ Sandblasted window of themaster bathroom (present)［Fig. 13］ Japanese-style room on thesecond floor (present)［Fig. 14］ Initial floor plan
179

The living-room block has almost the same layout on the first and thesecond floor -- two Japanese-style rooms and a hiro-en (wide veranda)around them. This composition can often appear stumpy and stodgy.
However, in this case, the well-balanced proportion of the large block wasachieved by making the hiro-en on the first floor thirty centimeters wider
than the one on the second floor, and by extending the graceful copperroofed eaves (Fig. 1, 2). The interior of the first floor living room is fairly
conventional, yet the large room on the second floor is quite unique. A toko
(decorative alcove) has been shifted to the adjoining room side, and a
fukuro-dana (low cupboard) in front of a window and a tsuke-shoin (built-indesk) are arranged in an L-shape (Fig. 13). The hiro-en is also L-shaped andextended beyond the fukuro-dana window to permit more light. There arealso classical details, such as a replica of the Tsuki-no-ji-kuzushi no Ranma(transom window with the deformed kanji of “moon”) found in the Shingoten of the Katsura Imperial Villa (p.163). Various Japanese-style design
elements are integrated in this room.

The role of quality of design and construction in realizing preservation
Niitsu Secondary House is outstanding in terms of the excellent
combination of Japanese and Western styles, as well as the high quality andrich variation of details in both styles. The refined and heavily detailed designof the furniture, lighting fixtures, and stained glass was characteristic of
Shimizu-gumi, and distinguished its furniture and decoration division during
the Meiji period. Despite the repeated resale of the building, the originalform was well preserved, and even some elements that tend to be easily
damaged or replaced, such as wooden fixtures on the exterior and thedelicate stained and sandblasted glass, were maintained in remarkably goodcondition. Their condition is a testament to the effort of each successive
owner during the life of the building.
When the committee surveyed the house, the current owner pointed out
the opulence of the master bathroom. Seen from the inside, the elegant
sandblasted glass with the autumn flora scene is not just beautiful but alsofunctional. The window was deliberately placed to serve as a discreet screen
from the garden outside. If one is reclining in the bathtub, the greenery of
the mountains is visible through the clear glass above the autumn scene. Hitand-miss windows above and below provide ventilation (Fig. 12). The designis thoughtful in all its details. On hot summer afternoons, each owner musthave looked up at the darkening sky, felt the refreshing cool breeze, andcherished this bathroom.

180

High-quality houses are the houses that can last for a long time.
Unfortunately, not all high-quality historical houses have survived, but allhouses do have the potential to withstand repeated natural disasters andendure the whims and daily wear and tear of generations of residents. The
current owner noted that one of the reasons they purchased the house wasthat it was mold-free and in good condition, thanks to careful considerationof adequate ventilation in the design. Impressively, the house’s fixtures andstructure are trouble-free eighty years after construction. It is clear that
careful design and high-quality construction contributed greatly to thepreservation of this house.
Tsunekichi Niitsu Secondary House has been preserved thanks to theexcellent quality of the house and excellent care of the owners.

【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6-8, 10-13: Photographs taken by the Committee (August 2018, October 2019)
Fig. 2, 4, 5, 9:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 14:
Shimizu-gumi, Jutaku kenchiku zushu (Residential architecture
catalog), vol. 2, 1939

181

182

Chapter 4
Houses that Have Become Monuments andPart of the Collective Memory

183

4-1

Tokujirō Ishibashi Residence(present Ishibashi Guest House)

Deep understanding in the original design and creation of amaintenance plan for the future

Setsuko Nakajima［Fig. 1］ South
façade (present)［Fig. 2］ South façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 3］ West façade (entrance side,
present): the main entrance with asmall portico and a rotary［Fig. 4］ Loggia in front of theguest room (present)184

［Fig. 5］ Details of the west
façade (small air vents andscallop shell reliefs)

Process of inheritance1933 (completion)
1942-1946

Tokujirō Ishibashi
Joint headquarters of Japan Rubber, Japan Tire,
and Asahi Steel
Requisition

1946-1952
1950

Japan Rubber Co., Ltd.
↓1955
Shōjirō Ishibashi
Bridgestone Tire Co., Ltd.
↓2012 to 2017 (present) K.K. Nagasaka Sangyō
Location

Kurume City (Fukuoka) - #57

Completion

1933

Architect

Gunpei Matsuda

Structure

Reinforced concrete
Two stories with a small basement and a small third floor

Main Purpose

Residence → Guesthouse

Plot Area

2750 tsubo (9091 sq. m)

Floor Area

292 tsubo (965 sq. m)Awards26th BELCA Awards Longlife Division (2016)
Architectural Institute of Japan Selected Architectural Designs(2018)

Public AccessPrivate property in principle (Visits are not permitted)

185

Encounter of the Ishibashi family and Gunpei Matsuda
Ishibashi Guest House is located in the heart of Kurume City, just five
hundred meters east of JR Kurume Station. In an area with many public
facilities, such as the city hall and the office of the Chamber of Commerceand Industry, Ishibashi Guest House’s spacious lot, which covers over nine
thousand square meters, and rich greenery bring beauty and calm to the city.
Ishibashi Guest House was built in 1933, as the house of local
businessman Tokujirō Ishibashi. He started his career in a family-owned tailor
shop, and expanded the business to Nihon Tabi Corporation and Japan
Rubber Co., Ltd. The building was designed by Gunpei Matsuda (1894-1981).
Ishibashi consulted with Shōhei Matsuda, Gunpei’s older brother and anarchitect in Fukuoka, about construction of his new house. Shōhei had
designed a factory for Nihon Tabi Corporation previously, which led to his
connection with the Ishibashi family. Shōhei in turn introduced his brother to
Ishibashi, and Gunpei accepted the commission to design the house.
At the time, Gunpei worked at Trowbridge & Livingston, an architecturaldesign firm, and was involved in works related to the conglomerate MitsuiGroup, such as Mitsui Main Building. After accepting the commissions todesign Ishibashi Residence and Takanaga Mitsui Secondary House, heestablished his own architectural design firm in Tokyo in 1931. Ishibashi
Residence was the firm’s second project after Takanaga Mitsui Secondary
House.
The building was constructed by Shimizu-gumi. Gunpei, an alumni of
Nagoya Higher Technical School. He was recommended for a position at
Shimizu-gumi by Teiji Suzuki, a department head of the school, and joined
the company in April of 1918. An early project involved the design of
Shirokiya Department Store in Osaka. At that time, Junkichi Tanabe was achief architect for Shimizu-gumi. Notably, Junkichi gave some advice toGunpei about going to the United States before his departure.1 After four
years with the company, Gunpei left and relocated to the United States.
While it is not clear exactly why Shimizu-gumi accepted the Ishibashi
Residence project, Gunpei Matsuda and Shimizu-gumi did have theaforementioned connection. Construction on Ishibashi Residence started in
January 1932, and was completed in January 1933. According to Koji shunkō
hōkokusho (Construction completion report) owned by Shimizu Corporation,
the architect of the project was Gunpei Matsuda, and the supervisors were
Shōhei Matsuda and Haruki Neda (根田 春橘). Gunpei was supervised by his
brother, who was working near the construction site.

186

The relationship between the Ishibashi family and Gunpei Matsuda
started with the Tokujirō House and lasted long after construction wascompleted. Gunpei Matsuda designed many buildings related to the
Ishibashi family: the house of Shōjirō Ishibashi, younger brother of Tokujirō
and the first president of Bridgestone Tyre Company, Ltd. (present official
residence of the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States, 1937, Tokyo);a mountain villa in Karuizawa (1940, Nagano); and the headquarters ofBridgestone Tyre Company, Ltd. (1941, Tokyo). In his later years Matsuda
often reminisced about how he became the architect of Tokujirō Ishibashi
Residence and how he met the Ishibashi family. Tokujirō Ishibashi Residence
must have been a significant project for him during the course of his career
as an architect.
Spanish-style house
Ishibashi Guest House is a Spanish-style residence. The exterior features
distinctive characteristics of the Spanish style: exterior walls with stucco
finish in pale cream color; gyōki-buki style roofing of Spanish roof tile; aloggia with two arches; small air vents aligned vertically and horizontally;bronze handrails with hammered finish; and scallop shell reliefs. The
parabolic arch in the sunroom in front of the study, the decorative loggia
with a lattice, and the octagonal fountain on the terrace are also in the
Spanish design (Fig. 1 to 5).
Before designing his house, Tokujirō visited outstanding houses in Tokyo
guided by Shigeo Hirata, new staff at Matsuda’s architectural firm and afuture business partner. Tokujirō liked houses he toured in Florida andCalifornia, where Colonial Spanish style houses were popular during theperiod Matsuda was studying at Cornell University in New York. Matsuda
must have been knowledgeable about the Spanish style and made it apreferred choice for his designs, as Takanaga Mitsui Secondary House wasalso of the Spanish style.

187

Spanish-style houses appeared in Japan at the end of the Taisho Period
and the beginning of the Showa Period. During this period, many Spanish
style residences were built: Tsunekichi Asabuki House (1925, Tokyo) designed
by W. M. Vories, Toshikuni Nitta House (1928, Hyogo) designed by Shichirō
Kigo, Yoshio Ōbayashi House (1932, Hyogo), the house of the founder of
Obayashi Corporation; and Shinji Inui House (1937, Hyogo) designed by Setsu
Watanabe. This style reached Japan from the United States. In essence,
Ishibashi Guest House was a typical Spanish-style house designed by anarchitect, Gunpei Matsuda, who had seen Spanish-style houses and studied
the style overseas. Ishibashi Residence is an illustrative example of how
trends in residential architecture had evolved from the Meiji period, when
European architecture was the preferred model, to the Taisho and the earlyShowa periods, when American architecture, such as Colonial styles,
attracted more interest.
A house for a family, with modern conveniences
The floor plan of the Ishibashi Residence differentiates and organizes theflow of traffic for guests, family members, and household staff. The floorplan
prioritized spaces for the family. Rooms for guests were placed around theentrance and the entrance hall, and rooms for the family, such as the dining
room, the living room (Fig. 6), the study, the bedrooms, and the Japanesestyle rooms, lay beyond the guest spaces. Rooms for the family were
designed as neat, bright, and understated rather than pompous, with highquality elegant design elements used effectively. Access to each room
through corridors, with the emphasis on privacy throughout the space (Fig.
7). Upon designing the Ishibashi Residence, Matsuda wrote, “Conventional
houses are often designed mainly for guests, but, as the original purpose of
the project, the main focus of the design should be the family using thehouse everyday”, and noted that he devised a way to “secure privacy.”2 Theinterior environment was also arranged in a way that “all rooms face thesouth to bring in the sunlight during winter and have good north-south
ventilation during summer.”2［Fig. 6］ Hall on the first floor(present): A living room, adining room, and a service
room were combined into
one room. The room iscurrently used as a hall.

188

At Ishibashi Residence it was important to prepare adequate modern
utilities, and their installation was carefully integrated into the planning forthe building. The house is heated by warm water circulation running
throughout the entire building. Japanese-style rooms have an underfloor
heating system, with warm water pipes embedded in tatami mats. The
bathrooms, washrooms, and kitchen each have a reliable supply of hotrunning water, and each room has a telephone and electric bell. Matsuda
wrote, “the interior of each room should be prepared with the least amountof showy decoration, and the important thing is to complete importantfacilities for daily life”, and “I tried to hide pipes for the radiators and otherutilities as much as possible”.2
This approach to house design was largely based on the education andexperiences Matsuda had in the United States. However, until the end of his
life, Matsuda firmly believed that the “personality, talent, sense of justice,and behavior of an architect should be respected and trusted in society.”
Ishibashi Guest House exemplified the high standard of Matsuda’s ideal
residential architecture, and demonstrated how far Japanese modern houses
had evolved to that point in history.

［Fig. 7］ Initial floor plan of the first floor

189

Japanese-style room in a Western-style building
It was common that a Japanese-style room was included in a modern
Western-style building in Japan. Japanese-style rooms in Ishibashi Guest
House are arranged harmoniously in relation to the Spanish-style exterior.
The Japanese-style lounge and the Buddhist altar room are separated fromother rooms and designed like an annex connected by a corridor. From theinside of the house, it feels like a Japanese-style building is attached.
However, the exterior is designed as a single building, and the block of theJapanese-style rooms is blended into the Spanish-style design (Fig. 8, 9).
Any potential awkwardness between the Western-style exterior andJapanese-style rooms is minimized by the steel window frame of the engawa(Japanese-style veranda). The steel window frame is similar to a wooden
frame in terms of its dimension and layout of crosspieces. When closed, thewindow conceals all views of the Western-style exterior from the interior.
When open, the window’s hinge allows the window to open widely andcreate the typical airy Japanese-style engawa (Fig. 10). A Japanese-stylegarden in front of the Japanese rooms continues the excellent integration of
the Western-style exterior and the Japanese rooms. In addition, on thesecond floor, a spacious engawa functions like a sunroom to seamlessly
connect the exterior view to the interior Japanese room.

［Fig. 8］ Exterior of the block of theJapanese-style rooms (present)［Fig. 9］ Japanese-style lounge on thefirst floor (present)［Fig. 10］ Steel window frame of theJapanese-style room: It can swing tothe outside and open wide.

190

Garden designed by Takuma Tono
The garden was designed by Takuma Tono (1981-1985), who is widely
considered the first Japanese landscape architect. Tono studied landscapedesign at Cornell University at the same time Matsuda was there, and later
returned to Japan to open a landscape design firm. Matsuda asked Tono tohandle landscape design, presumably because of their connection throughthe university.
Ishibashi Guest House sits on a near-square plot, with the building on thenorth side and a large garden on the south side. Initially, a swimming pool, apergola, a wall fountain, and a gazebo were on the south side of the building.
The east section featured a lawn bordered by tall trees (Fig. 11). Some of theoriginal facilities, such as a swimming pool, a pergola, and a gazebo, hadalready been removed, and a new pool and a new pergola were created on asmaller scale to the west of the earlier versions’ location. The Japanese-stylegarden on the east side was also altered. These changes must have been
made as a part of the renovation to convert the building to a guest house.
Many trees are still standing along the border of the spacious law, such as
seventy Japanese red pine trees, camphor trees, Japanese zelkova trees, andmoso bamboo. The trees of Ishibashi Guest House are designated asprotected greenery of Kurume City, which was the second designation under
the system.

［Fig. 11］ Initial layout

191

History of succession in the Ishibashi family
The Ishibashi Residence was used as a private residence until 1941, after
which it became the joint headquarters of three companies, Japan Rubber,
Japan Tire (presently Bridgestone), and Asahi Steel from 1942 to 1945. From
1946 to 1952, this building was requisitioned by the U.S. Armed Forces.
During the requisition, it was used as headquarters of the construction unitof the Itazuke Airfield and the headquarters of the counterintelligence unitof the U.S. Army. When the requisition ended in 1955, Shōjirō Ishibashi
accepted the property and established it as the Ishibashi Guest House, an
accommodation facility for honored guests to Kurume. The Crown Prince
Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko (present Emperor Emeritus and Empress
Emerita) stayed there in 1968, and Prince and Princess Hitachi enjoyed lunch
there in 1989. In addition to hosting guests related to Bridgestone, thebuilding was used to host all types of honored guests visiting Kurume,
including guests from abroad. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s,
Bridgestone refurbished some rooms, such as bathrooms and toilets, andrepaired the exterior wall of the plot.
Since 2012, the property has been owned and managed by Nagasaka
Sangyō, the company operated by Shōjirō’s grandson, Hiroshi Ishibashi. At
the time of acquisition, Ishibashi Guest House closely resembled its originalform, but had undergone some modifications with each change of use.
Because of this situation, Hiroshi Ishibashi had a strong desire to restore theoriginal form of the house with the intention of using it for many years.
Therefore, he decided to undo the modifications made since its construction
and prepare the house for long use through structural reinforcement andrenewal of facilities. This restoration work aimed to recreate the house as it
was around 1955, and included the following works: restoration of exterior
walls, replacement of roof tiles, restoration of interior shikkui plaster walls,
repair of fixtures, renewal of lighting fixtures, and renewal of air conditioners.
The work began in 2013 and was completed in May of 2014. The restorations
were designed by Seiji Mawatari and Nobuyuki Funazaki of MHS Planners,
Architects & Engineers Ltd., and done by the Kyushu branch of Taisei
Corporation.
In addition to the restoration work, it is notable that two documents werecreated to guide future maintenance: Chōki shūzen kōji keikakusho (longterm repair plan) for the building and Nenkan iji hozen keikakusho (annual
maintenance plan) for the garden. After the restoration work, Ishibashi
Guest House was highly praised and received several awards, such as the
26th BELCA awards longlife division award (2016), and the Architectural
Institute of Japan selected architectural designs award (2018).

192

Ishibashi Guest House has been passed on in very good condition thanks
to Ishibashi family’s deep understanding and affection towards the property
and their strong desire and intention to pass it on to future generations. The
restoration work clearly demonstrated their commitment to sustain theproperty well into the future. The life and legacy of this building is expected
to continue for many years. The excellent original design established thebuilding’s timeless value, and the outstanding insight and efforts of the
Ishibashi family conveyed the value to future generations. The careful repairs
and preservation have further enhanced the importance of Ishibashi Guest
House.

【Notes】
1. From Matsuda Gunpei kaiko-roku (Memoires of Gunpei Matsuda), p.58-59, 1987
2. From Shinchiku kinen Ishibashi Tokujirō tei (Construction memorial book of Tokujirō
Ishibashi Residence), 1933
【References】
1. Shinchiku kinen Ishibashi Tokujirō tei (Construction memorial book of Tokujirō Ishibashi
Residence), 1933
2. Matsuda Gunpei kaiko-roku (Memoires of Gunpei Matsuda), Matsuda Gunpei kaikoroku hensan-kai (Memoires of Gunpei Matsuda editorial team), 1987
3. Shōzō Baba, Sōsō to keishō Matsuda Hirata Sekkei (Beginning and inheritance: MHS
Planners, Architects & Engineerings), planned by MHS Planners, Architects & Engineers
Ltd., edited by Takeshi Ishidō, 2001
4. Motoko Maruyama, Ikitsuzukeru kenchiku 10 Gunpei Matsuda (Surviving architecture#10: Gunpei Matsuda), INAX report No. 176, 2008
5. Architectural Institute of Japan, Selected architectural designs, 2018
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3-6, 8-10: Photographs taken by the Committee
Fig. 2, 7:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog),
vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 11:
Shinchiku kinen Ishibashi Tokujirō tei (Construction memorial book ofTokujirō Ishibashi Residence), 1933

193

4-2

Kiichirō Toyoda Secondary House

Inherited monumental house that recalls the foundation of thecompany

Zentarō Yagasaki［Fig. 1］ South
façade (present)［Fig. 2］ South façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Living room on thefirst floor (photo taken justafter completion, from the［Fig. 3］ Each story has a different Catalog)
exterior finish (present)

194Process of inheritance1933 (completion)

Kiichirō Toyoda
After W.W.II: temporary requisition↓
Shōichirō Toyoda↓
Toyota Motor Corporation1952
2018 (present)
Location

Toyota City (Aichi, relocated from Nagoya City) - #44

Completion

1933

Architect

Teiji Suzuki

Structure

Wood, two stories, with a small reinforced concrete basement

Main Purpose

Memorial museum

Floor Area

62 tsubo (205 sq. m)

Public Access

Entry is not permitted

Monumental house relocated to the site of Toyota Kuragaike
Commemorative HallThis house is the secondary house of Kiichirō Toyoda (1894-1952), thefounder of Toyota Motor Corporation. The building was originally built in1933 in Minamiyama-chō, a suburb of Nagoya City. At that time, the site wascalled Minamiyama Nōen (Minamiyama Farm) (Fig. 2, 5). The year 1933 wasalso the year Toyoda created the automobile division in Toyoda Automatic
Loom Works. The business of the automobile division was about to start thephase of full-scale operation. In a Japanese-style room on the second floor of
the house, members of the new division gathered to repeat their study
session on automobile manufacturing, and share their dream to produce cars
for the general public. Therefore, this house is of monumental significancefor the company.

［Fig. 5］ Greenhouses at the originalsite in Minamiyama-chō: this site wasalso called Minamiyama Nōen
(Minamiyama Farm)［Fig. 6］ North façade and entrance
on the first floor (present)
195

The house was designed by Teiji Suzuki, often called “father of thearchitecture world in Nagoya”. He graduated from the department ofarchitecture at Tokyo Imperial University in 1896, and conducted research on
steel structure at graduate school. After finishing the course, for a brief
period he worked at a private company building steel earthquake-resistantarchitecture, and became a professor at Nagoya Higher Technical School(present Nagoya Institute of Technology). In addition to architectural
education, he was committed to design activities, and made an enormous
contribution to the development of modern architecture in Tōkai District,
especially around Nagoya. According to Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction
completion report), Saburō Sato was also listed as an architect with Teiji
Suzuki. Its construction manager was Ken Chigusa (千草謙).
The house was temporarily requisitioned after the Second World War,and in 1952 it was inherited by Shōichirō Toyoda, Kiichirō’s son. From 1997 to
1999, the house was relocated to Kuragaike, Toyota City, Aichi. The relocation
was planned by the plant engineering department of Toyota Motors
Corporation, and conducted by Shimizu Corporation, which had handled theinitial construction of the house.
Japanese-style rooms, floored with tatami mats, in a Western-style house
The first story is an ookabe-style (pillars hidden in walls) structure withgray scraped texture mortar finish. The second story is a half-timberedstructure made of douglas fir and scraped mortar finish walls. The overhang
terrace supported by decorative corbels is notable. The exterior appearanceof the basement of the house is very unique. On the irregular surface with
exposed aggregate finish using artificial gravels, natural stones are randomly
pasted to emphasize the character of the surface (Fig. 3).
These design elements were part of Suzuki’s original design, which
emerged through selective and tailored use of design elements of Westernarchitecture. As a Western-style structure designed by a Japanese architectin the early Showa period, this house was unquestionably exceptional.

［Fig. 7］ Decorative detail at the entrance(restored after relocation)［Fig. 8］ East façade (present)196

It is not rare that a Western-style house has a Japanese-style room
floored by tatami mats. This house has two adjoining Japanese-style rooms
on the second floor, one with nine tatami mats and one with six tatami mats.
These rooms have distinctive adaptations of Japanese design elements, suchas toko-bashira (main pillar of the decorative alcove) made of bamboo, tokono-ma (decorative alcove) with ji-bukuro (cupboards on the floor), and awickerwork ceiling rotated forty-five degrees from the ceiling frame. Theseelements are clearly in harmony with Sencha-shumi (a style related toinfused green tea culture), a style popular from the end of Edo period to theearly Showa period. In addition to referring to traditional design andfollowing popular design, the architect had a desire to experiment withentirely new Japanese-style designs. It was also progressive that sawdust
coating was used for the finish of the interior walls, rather than Juraku-tsuchi(high quality mud to finish drywall).
Another unique feature of this house is the first floor sunroom made ofwooden frames and glass panels (Fig. 1, 2). In the early Showa period, there
were many examples of houses with sunrooms, such as the Komai House in
Kyoto (1927, designed by W. M. Vories). An early example of a house where
the dining room was connected to a sunroom was the former Earl Chiaki
Watanabe House (1905, designed by Kōzaburō Kigo). Having a sunroom wasa contemporary trend and was considered a status symbol for those pursuinga Western lifestyle.
Repair, survey, relocation, and restoration
Several modifications were made during the period from initialconstruction in 1933 to the period of relocation to the current site. During
the Second World War, the boiler room under the sunroom was used as an
air raid shelter, and a staircase from the dining room to the shelter was
newly made. In 1952, an extension of the building was made as a precast
concrete building, the first of its kind in Japan, and some facilities such as atoilet were removed.
Around 1955, the sunroom was rebuilt in the same dimensions. In recent
years some necessary modifications have been made, such as the addition ofa Buddhist altar on the second floor, yet the original form of the house has
generally been preserved.

197

Prior to the relocation to Kuragaike, the building was surveyed in detail by
Fumoto Laboratory of Nagoya Institute of Technology in 1996. The survey
revealed the original form of the house, and therefore the decision wasmade to restore it to this form after relocation. The relocation andrestoration were conducted as thoroughly as befitting an important culturalproperty. For the plot in Kuragaike Park, the planners selected an area with
topography similar to the original site, and created different levels to
replicate the environment.
Inherited to future generations as a spiritual symbol
Obviously, this house is a precious example of Western-style architecturefrom the early Showa period, with an innovative and ambitious design andstructure. A detailed survey was conducted before the relocation, and therestoration work was exhaustive and carefully done. The relocation andrestoration further enhanced the value of the architecture, and it waspreserved for future generations.
This is a monumental house which serves as a tangible historical link tothe foundation of a leading globally-famous Japanese company. As a spiritual
symbol of the employees of the company, the importance of the building
remains immeasurable.

［Fig. 9］ Floor plan after restoration【References】
1. Kazuyoshi Fumoto, Kyu Toyoda Kiichirō tei, Toyota Motor Corporation, 1995
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 6-8: Photographs taken by the Committee (May 2018)
Fig. 2, 4:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog), vol.
1, 1935
FIg. 5, 9:
Kyu Toyoda Kiichirō tei ichiku shūfuku kōji hōkokusho (Report on therelocation and restoration work of the former Kiichirō Toyoda House), 2002
198

199

4-3

Masao Koga House (present
exhibition “Koga Masao no Sekai”[the World of Masao Koga] in the
Koga Masao Museum of Music)

Sentiment that the musician put into this house

Akira Yasuno［Fig. 1］ Exhibition of
the study (present)［Fig. 2］ Study (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Guest room (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 3］ Exhibition of the guest room(present)200

Process of inheritance1938 (completion)

1952

Masao Koga↓
Multiple changes of its owner and residents↓
Masao Koga

1978

Death of Masao Koga

1979

Opening of Koga Masao Memorial Museum

1997

Opening of Koga Masao Museum of Music:
a part of the Koga House was relocatedand restored in the museum2019 (present)

Koga Masao Music Culture Promoting Foundation

1939

Location

Shibuya Ward (Tokyo) - #18

Completion

April 1938

Architect

Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Andō)

Structure

Wood (partially reinforced concrete), two stories

Main Purpose

House → Museum (partial relocation and restoration)

Plot Area

1350 tsubo (4463 sq. m)1

Floor Area

145 tsubo (479 sq. m)

Public Access

Open to the public【Notes】
1. From Koji Shunkō Hōkokusho (Construction Completion Report)

The dream to create the Koga Village
Masao Koga (1904-1978) was a great composer of the Showa period who
wrote many popular songs. He was born in 1904, the fifth son of a chinaware
dealer in Taguchi-mura, Mizuma-gun (present Ookawa City), Fukuoka. He
moved to Tokyo, studied at Meiji University, and created a mandolin clubwith other members. In 1928, while still just a student, he wrote the music
and lyrics for the popular song Kage-wo shitaite (Long for the shadow). In
1931, he became a songwriter at Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd., and in 1934 hemoved to Teichiku Entertainment, Inc. His signature melody was known as
Koga Melody, and it was beloved across Japan. He received the Medal with
Purple Ribbon and the People’s Honor Award.
201

Koga loved the pine grove on the hill south of Yoyogi Uehara station. He
rented a house near the pine grove as a retreat for times when heexperienced songwriter’s block. He purchased a plot in the grove to live on
after lengthy negotiations with the landowner. To persuade the landowner tosell, he promised to establish Koga Village, a haven for younger songwriters
to live collectively and create music.
Ultimately, Koga’s dream of the colony was unrealized. Troubles after thecompletion of the house may have been a contributing factor. However, after
the Second World War, Koga was able to guide and mentor many young
singers, and the house in Yoyogi Uehara became a meeting place for people
in the music industry. The house was unquestionably a significant site in thehistory of modern pop music in Japan.
Sentiment toward the house
Koga knew the then president of Shimizu-gumi, so he asked Shimizu-gumi
to build the house, which was designed by Kihachirō Andō. Shimizu-gumi
also created an access road from the plot boundary to the entrance, a
storehouse, storage space, a parking lot, and an annex.
Construction began in March of 1937 and was completed in May of 1938.
At the jōtō-shiki (ridgepole raising ceremony), Koga wrote “Koga Masao korewo-tatsu” (Masao Koga built this) on a gohei (wooden wand used for Shinto
ceremonies) in India ink. The house was a unique structure built tocommunicate the passion and personality of Masao Koga. These wereexpressed in details such as stained glass incorporating the figure of a G-clef,
a ranma (transom window) with katana-tsuba (hand guard), and amantlepiece.
However, within a year of completion, during Koga’s visit to the UnitedStates, the house fell into the hands of another person. Furthermore, during
the upheaval after the Second World War, its owner and residents changed
multiple times. After thirteen years of separation, Koga finally regained
ownership of the house through an auction held in 1952.
From such a tumultuous history, people close to Koga must have known
that he had a powerful attachment to the house. Around 1989, ten years
after Koga’s death in 1978, stakeholders founded a construction committee
to demolish the house and build a new building. The current facility wascompleted in 1997, including the museum where a part of the house was
relocated and restored. His achievements as a music composer were
obviously outstanding enough to merit his own museum, but those who
knew his feelings about the house must have contributed to its restoration.

202

While some materials were replaced in the relocation, the following
original components were relocated from the house to the museum: thestained glass of the entrance; the entrance hall and stairs; the fireplace
mantles of the drawing room and the living room; the transom window
between the living room and the veranda; a section of the floor of thebalcony; the guest room and its adjoining room; and the study. The first floor
guest room and its adjoining room and the second floor study were
preserved in their entirety (Fig. 5).

［Fig. 5］ Exhibition on the third floor of themuseum (present)

The original form of the house
According to the original floor plan, before it was eventually demolished,
the first floor had been divided into three areas: the front area with thereception room and the domestic worker rooms; the middle area with theliving/dining room; and the back area with the Japanese-style rooms, thekitchen, and the bathroom. The second floor was mainly composed ofprivate spaces, such as the cha-no-ma (family living room), the Buddhist altarroom, the bedroom, the children’s room, the study, and the office. The
balcony on the south was accessible from the cha-no-ma, the bedroom, andthe study, so these rooms were connected outside (Fig. 6).
The living/dining room in the center of the first floor was notable among
all the rooms, as it was a spacious room that felt like it was connected to theoutside. Originally, the room was connected to the veranda, the terrace, andthe pool on the south, and to the courtyard across the corridor on the north.
It is unfortunate that the connectioned space around the most distinctive
creative room was lost.

203

［Fig. 6］ Initial floor plan (first floor and second floor)

Rooms of the original Koga House were aligned in a V-shaped flying geeseformation rather than a simple side-by-side layout. The layout was visible in
the flow of the roof, which created variations in the exterior appearance ofthe building. Coupled with the tiled roof with long eaves and the white
exterior walls, the layout functions as the foundation of the impression of
the Japanese-style house (Fig. 7). The exterior appearance must have been
striking against the pine grove backdrop. The house was described as “theearly modern Western style” in the Catalog, likely due to the eclectic stylewhich included modern Western elements. Its walls were made in theookabe (a wall hiding pillars) structure, and some lower walls and the cornersof the entrance were lined with stones or tiles. The roof tiles were also
three-dimensional and closer to the Western style. Stained glass on the
façade and the lattice work of the grating had several Tudor-like motifs.
These design elements were echoed in interior features as well, such as thefour leaf pattern decoration and the adzed surface beams. The perfectcombination of Japanese style and Western style was characteristic of theKoga Melody.

204

［Fig. 7］ East façade (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog)

Relocated rooms and fixtures
The guest room and its adjoining room, later relocated from the back of
the first floor and preserved, were originally used for interacting with closefriends, practicing Koga’s hobby of traditional Japanese dance, and writing
Japanese-style songs. These rooms have formal interiors of the Kyoma
dimension (the standard used in Kyoto), which is larger than the Kantoma
dimension (the standard used in the Kanto region). Despite their formality,
the rooms have some playful and attractive touches, such as the ranma andshitaji-mado (window exposing bamboo lath) filled with thin vertical bamboo
sticks (Fig. 3, 4).
In contrast to the guest room and its adjoining room, the study was amagnificent Western-style room used for songwriting and vocal lessons. The
room features the four leaf pattern on the ceiling and the door of thecupboard, and twisted pillars decorate the fireplace. Koga’s favorite pieces offurniture have been preserved or replicated. The carving on the desk was
hand carved by Masao Sato, the field manager of Shimizu-gumi (Fig. 1, 2).
The wall and stairs in the entrance hall on the first floor were alsopreserved (Fig. 8-10). The four leaf pattern appears again, this time inlaid on
the side of the stairs. The playful design of the handrail suggests thegeometric shape of musical notes, indicating that it was a house of asongwriter. The abovementioned modern stained glass in the entrance also
has the design of musical notes and the figure of a G-clef (Fig. 11).
The two modern style mantles, intended to house heaters, arecharacterized by straight lines and the flat surfaces of stone materials such as
marble and agate, and tiles. The mantle in the living/dining room features a
black and white checkered floor, while the mantle in the reception room isnotable for the wall with two katana-tsuba accents (Fig. 12). The ranma
between the living/dining room and the veranda, which uses many katanatsuba, is also preserved and exhibited.
205

［Fig. 8］ Side of the stairs (present)［Fig. 9］ Entrance hall and stairs(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 11］ Stained glass preserved
from the entrance (present)［Fig. 10］ Exhibition of the wall of theentrance hall and stairs (present)［Fig. 12］ Mantlepiece preserved from theliving room (present)

206

Koga must have wanted to preserve the entire house and protect the pine
grove, but it must have been difficult to accomplish this vision for a plot sonear a Tokyo train station. In light of this, the makers of the exhibition should
be lauded for choosing some important rooms and fixtures and successfully
preserving the sentiment and memories of Masao Koga in the original plot.
Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, it was possible to pass on thememory of this house, a residence with great significance in the history ofJapanese popular music.

［Fig. 13］ Façade of the museum (present)［Fig. 14］ Restoration in the exhibition
room on the third floor of the museum【References】
1. Terunobu Fujimori, Akihisa Masuda, “Ie no kioku 28: Kyu Koga Masao Tei” [Memory of
the house #28: Former Masao Koga House], planned and edited by Mitsui Fudosan
Residential Co.,Ltd., Konnichiwa, Yūhōsha, April 1992
2. Koga Masao Ongaku Hakubutukan [Koga Masao Museum of Music] (booklet from themuseum)3. Terunobu Fujimori, Nihon no yōkan (Western-style houses in Japan), vol. 6 Showa II,
Kōdansha, 2003
4. Tōkyō Kenchiku Kaikoroku II [Nostalgia for architecture in Tokyo II], The Yomiuri
Shimbun, 1991
5. Kōji nenkan [Construction yearbook], 1939
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 8, 10-13: Photographs taken by the Committee
Fig. 2, 4, 6, 7, 9:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture
catalog], vol. 2, 1939
Fig. 14:
Koga Masao Ongaku Hakubutukan [Koga Masao Museum of Music](booklet from the museum)

207

4-4

Yōnosuke Shimizu Secondary
Residence (present Kyū Shimizu-ke
Jūtaku Shoin)

Traditional Japanese-style architecture restored after one hundred
years
Takako Hatada［Fig. 1］ External
appearance (present)［Fig. 2］ Front façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ 11-tatami-mat shoin-no-maof the annex (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ The 11-tatami-mat shoinno-ma after restoration (present)

208

Process of inheritance
1910-11
1919 (completion)

1937
1953

1979

2013

Yōnosuke Shimizu started construction of an annex.
↓
Yōnosuke Shimizu Secondary Residence
Many buildings were relocatedfrom Naka Negishi to Seta.
Added the living room, the adjoining room,and the storehouse.
↓
Sold to Nissan Tamagawa Hospital
Disassembly of the buildings
except the annex
The annex was disassembled
and its components werestored by Setagaya Ward.
↓
Setagaya Ward
Restored at Futako-tamagawa Parkin Setagaya Ward

Assembling one hundred years of history
Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin, long preserved as disassembled
components, was restored in Futako-tamagawa Park one hundred years after
its completion. Yōnosuke Shimizu (1887-1957), then vice president of
Shimizu-gumi (present Shimizu Corporation), built this building as an annex
to one of his houses in Naka Negishi (present Taito Ward), Tokyo, from 1910
to 1911. In 1919, this building was relocated to Seta, Setagaya, Tokyo, alongwith the main building. At the time of relocation, Tamagawa and Seta were
known for their scenic beauty and flourishing rice fields, and were popularsites for secondary and holiday houses of the nobility and political andbusiness elite. The Yōnosuke Residence was beloved by his wife Toku, who
resided there for many years.

209

Location

Setagaya Ward (Tokyo) - #17

Completion

Main building: Relocated to Naka Negishi around 1897, and to
Seta in 1919.
Annex: Constructed in Naka Negishi from 1910 to 1911.
Relocated to Seta in 1919. Restored at Futako-tamagawa
Park in 2013.
Extended block: December 1937
Existing Japanese-style building: Unknown
Main building: Assumed to be the house of the head clerk of
Bunzaemon Kinokuniya, but the architect is
unknown.
Annex: Unknown. Restoration at Futako-tamagawa Park was
designed and conducted by Shimizu Corporation.
Extended block: Shimizu-gumi (Kihachirō Andō)
Existing Japanese-style building: Unknown
Extended block: wood, single story(storehouse: reinforced concrete, two stories)

Architect

Structure
Main Purpose

Secondary residence → Public facility

Plot Area

Seta: 7560 tsubo (24992 sq. m)

Floor Area

Total floor area: 147 tsubo (485 sq. m)
Main building: 75 tsubo (247.5 sq. m)
Annex: 18.5 tsubo (61 sq. m), the floor area after relocation to
Futako-tamagawa Park is 83.77 sq. m, including the newadditional block.
Extended block: 40 tsubo (132 sq. m)
Existing Japanese-style building: 13.5 tsubo (44.5 sq. m)AwardsSetagaya Ward Registered Tangible Cultural Property

Public Access

Open to the public

In 1952, the secondary residence and the plot were sold to the Nissan
Kohseikai foundation. In order to construct Tamagawa Hospital, most of thesecondary residence was demolished, although the annex was preserved (Fig.
2). The annex had been used as a nursery school for the staff of Tamagawa
Hospital and a lesson room for tea ceremony. However, when the hospitalplanned to expand in 1979, the annex was also disassembled. The annex
contained many elements of traditional Japanese-style architecture, andprecious woods and skilled craftsmanship were used. Considered a precious
building in the culture of historical architecture, the major components ofthe building were donated to Setagaya Ward after disassembly, and the ward
decided to preserve the components for future use. More than six hundred
components of the building were carefully preserved. In 2013, 34 years after
the disassembly, the Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin was restored through thedesign and construction work of Shimizu Corporation (Fig. 1).
210

A photograph of the Yōnosuke Secondary Residence, showing all buildingsof the residence, is included in the second volume of the Catalog (Fig. 5). The
main building and the annex are in the centre of the photograph, with theextended block, completed in 1937, west of the other buildings (Fig. 6).
The main building was formerly the residence of the head clerk of
Bunzaemon Kinokuniya in Fukagawa, Tokyo. Around 1897, Yōnosuke Shimizu
relocated the house to Naka Negishi for his own residence. It was relocated asecond time to Seta, but was destroyed by fire during the Second World War.
The extended block primarily consisted of a living room, an adjoining
room, and a storehouse. Kihachirō Andō, architect of Shimizu-gumi, designed
this block as a raised-floor building. The design made use of its location on awestern slope to provide a calm and open space. Access to the Japanesestyle garden was provided by a graceful flight of stone-made stairs
descending from the engawa (Japanese-style veranda) on the south (Fig. 7).
Andō graduated from the design department of the Tokyo Fine Arts
School (present Tokyo University of Arts) in 1914 and joined Shimizu-gumi in
1917. He continued working on residential projects until he left the company.
He was known for his mastery of design and skill in utilizing the character ofthe site and landscape. He designed for the lifestyle and preference ofresidents (see p.42). The annex was designed by a still-unknown architect.

［Fig. 5］ South façade of the secondary residence at Seta, Setagaya: the mainbuilding is in the center; the annex (left) and the extended block (far left) are on
the west (photo taken just after completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 7］ Extended block: built to the west of the annex in
1937, with the kengai-zukuri (construction on longcolumns below the building) utilizing the slope (phototaken just after completion, from the Catalog)

211

［Fig. 6］ Floor plan of the residence at Seta

Elements of traditional Japanese-style architecture in the annex
The annex is composed of an 11-tatami-mat shoin-no-ma (drawing room)
and a 5-tatami-mat tsugi-no-ma (adjoining room). The rooms are divided byfusuma (sliding paper door), but a larger space can be created by removing
fusuma and shōji (translucent paper sliding door) and connecting the tworooms and engawa (Fig. 8, 9).
All visible elements of the annex, such as the columns and nageshi(horizontal timber between columns), are made of straight grain timbers ofdomestic southern Japanese hemlock. Southern Japanese hemlock ischaracterized by a narrow and even grain, and the color of the timber turns
amber over time. As a result of these desirable characteristics, the wood wasa preferred building material for high-grade residential architecture.
The 11-tatami-mat shoin-no-ma has several decorative elements, such as
toko (decorative alcove), tsuke-shoin (built-in desk), and oshiire (closet) with
tenbukuro (top cupboard) (Fig. 3, 4). The rare morus tree is used for tokobashira (main front pillar of the decorative alcove), and maple is used for the
topboard of the tsuke-shoin. For the ranma (transom window) above thetsuke-shoin, craftsmen delicately curved the paulownia board in relief withgold and silver inlay (Fig. 10). The golden fusuma door next to the toko
depicts ivy and wisteria painted in Japanese-style colors (Fig. 11). A vivid
splash of color in the drawing room is found on the fusuma of the tenbukuro,with colored papers with pressed gold leaf and paintings of the four seasons.
The ceiling is coffered with frames of shioji wood (Fraxinus platypoda) andfinished with suri-urushi (rubbed lacquer). The panels of the ceiling are madeof Satsuma sugi (Japanese cedar) from Yakushima island. The harmony of theblack rubbed lacquer and the brown cedar panels lends an air of calm dignity
to the room (Fig. 12).
212

［Fig. 8］ Shoin-no-ma and tsugi-noma after restoration (present)［Fig. 9］ Shoin-no-ma and tsugi-noma after restoration (present)［Fig. 11］ Painting
on the fusuma inthe shoin-no-ma
after restoration(present)［Fig. 10］ Ranma of the tsuke-shoin
after restoration (present)［Fig. 12］ Coffered ceilingof the shoin-no-ma after
restoration (present)［Fig. 13］ Tsugi-no-ma of
the annex after restoration(present)

213［Fig. 14］ Engawa after
restoration (present)In the 5-tatami-mat tsugi-no-ma, the jibukuro (low cupboard) is finishedwith a topboard of Japanese zelkova. The ceiling above the cupboard iscovered with wickerwork of straight grain cedar. The ranma is filled withshitaji-mado (window exposing bamboo lath), and the decorative shelffeatures a katōmado (bell-shaped cutout) trimmed with black lacquer paint(Fig. 13).
The engawa facing the shoin-no-ma and the tsugi-no-ma has a decorative
ceiling with paired rafters. Compared to the drawing room, the engawa
space here is finished in the more stylish sukiya-style.
The roof of the building is a hip roof with pantile roofing. The roof above
the engawa is built as the structure of eaves, and is lower than the main roof.
The eaves are warped slightly and covered with straight eaves tiles. The baseof the exterior walls is mud with a bamboo lath. The lower part of the walls
is finished by clapboard siding, and walls above the siding are finished withshikkui plaster.
In the small building, typical features of a traditional Japanese-style
house in the modern era are well preserved, evidence of the building’s
meticulous construction.
Passion, technique, and method that contributed to the relocation andrestoration
Restoring and preserving a historical building presents many challenges,
and a series of verification is required at each stage of the process. In thecase of the restoration of the Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin, initialconstruction records and records of the relocation to Seta were inadequate.
In such cases, stakeholders must exert great effort in order to solve issues
and verify detailed information.
To restore the building from the disassembled components, drawings
were created and dimensions of each component were measured. The exact
dimension of each component was determined from the position of themortices and the recess cut. Historical accuracy was verified for eachcomponent, and every timber was examined in detail (Fig. 17). The
preserved components were not sufficient to enable a complete restoration,
which necessitated making complementary components for some missing
pieces. To clearly distinguish them from original components, thecomplementary components were marked with the year 2012. Lost
components, such as lighting fixtures and golden fusuma of the oshiire next
to the toko, were accurately restored after careful analysis of old
photographs.

214

Another challenge was how to ensure seismic durability of the building.
The annex has few walls along the engawa, which creates an airy light-filled
space, but resulted in a structure that did not meet the current BuildingStandards Act. To meet current building standards, the back of the door
pocket was converted to a structural bearing wall. A structural plywood was
also placed in the roof frame to create a new horizontal structural plane at
the height of purlins. Through these modifications, the original form of thebuilding was restored without compromising the openness of the space (Fig.
16). Engineers were careful to conceal the modern reinforcements in orderto protect the structure’s value as a cultural property.
The Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin was restored in Kishin-en, the Japanesestyle garden in Futako-tamagawa Park. In order for it to be suitable for publicaccess, the annex was extended and equipped with an entrance, a storage
space, mizuya (preparation space for tea ceremony), and a kitchen (Fig. 15).
To clearly demark the extended section, the roof of the connecting part was
lowered and the roof of the extended section was built as a gable roof.
Japanese cypress was chosen for the roof of the extended section, further
distinguishing the new components from the components restored in the
Taisho period.

［Fig. 15］ Floor plan for restoration(after restoration)［Fig. 16］ Section for restoration(after restoration)［Fig. 17］ Survey and measurementof the preserved components

215

The importance of passing on a traditional Japanese-style house to future
generations
Revival of the Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin as a historical relic one
hundred years after its construction has demanded efforts spanning the
Taisho, Showa, and Heisei periods. After two relocations and one
disassembly, the original character of the building is remarkably wellpreserved: the form and design of the contemporary traditional Japanesestyle house; fixtures created by invaluable techniques; details and art byskilled craftsmen. The latest modern technology and construction methods
were fully utilized, and the highly meaningful restoration was completed toconvey the architectural culture into the present. An enormous number ofgreat residential architecture has been lost to time, and the actual
restoration of a disassembled house is very rare. The successful
accomplishment of restoration work requires the coming together of manyand varied factors: strong passion to rescue, protect, and preserve thehouse; financial support; collaboration with experts; and, above all,understanding of the client. Stakeholders expended great effort to overcome
the many obstacles and support the restoration of the building. The Kyū
Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin was highly fortunate.
The Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin was registered as a Registered Tangible
Cultural Property of the Setagaya Ward. It quietly conveys the historicalatmosphere of the traditional Japanese-style house of the period, andcreates a new story of engagement for future generations of visitors andlocal residents.

【Sources】
Fig. 4, 5-7:

Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 2, 1939
Fig. 2, 15-17: Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 1, 3, 8-14: Kyū Shimizu-ke Jūtaku Shoin fukugen kōji [Restoration work of thedrawing room block of the former Shimizu family house], NARU Kenchiku
Shasin Jimusho [Naru architecture photo office]

216

217

4-6

Kanbee Kokubu Kugenuma Holiday
House

Founder’s house inherited by the company
Asae Ozawa［Fig. 1］ South façade(present; the west
block is on the left,the east block is on
the right in the
background, and theblock under thegable roof in thecenter includes thelounge and thedining room.)［Fig. 2］ South façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Lounge (living room) on thefirst floor (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Lounge (living room)on the first floor (present)

226

Process of inheritance1931 (completion)

Kanbee Kokubu X↓
1964
Rented by Kokubu Co., Ltd.
↓
1990
Kokubu General Partnership Company↓
2004 to 2017 (present) Kokubu Co., Ltd.
(present Kokubu Group Corp.)
Location

Fujisawa City (Kanagawa) - #30

Completion

June 1931

Architect

Hiroshi Ōtomo

Structure

Wooden, Two stories

Main Purpose

Secondary house → Corporate dormitory

Plot Area

2170 tsubo (7174 sq. m)

Floor Area

150 tsubo (495 sq. m)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)

Sustain the landscape of the Kugenuma Holiday House District
The Kokubu family descends from a merchant from Izawa, Ise (present
Izawa-cho, Matsusaka, Mie). Kanbee Kokubu IV started a soy sauce brewing
business in Edo (present Tokyo) in the middle of the Edo period. The business
was converted to a general food wholesaler at the beginning of the Meiji
period, which is still in operation. The company has become a household
name based on the sales of Calpis/Calpico.
The main house of the tenth head of the Kokubu family, Kanbee Kokubu X(1883-1975), was in Tokyo. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, the house wasrestored by Shimizu-gumi in 1925. Following the restoration of the mainhouse, the Kugenuma Holiday House was also designed and built by Shimizugumi in 1931.

227

The Kugenuma Kaigan District is an inherited property of the Ogyū clan,
the former head of the Funai domain (present Ōita Prefecture), where ashooting range of the Edo Shogunate was located. From the 1890s, this area
was developed into Japan’s first seaside holiday house district.1 The plot of
the holiday house of the Kokubu family predated this development. In 1891,
Mochiaki Hachisuka built his holiday house on the plot. After being owned by
the Mogi family and the Sōda family, business families in Yokohama, the plot
was acquired by the Kokubu family in 1930. According to the Catalog of
Shimizu-gumi, construction of the building was completed in June 1931.
Around 1964, under the Kokubu family’s ownership, Kokubu Co., Ltd.
acquired an agreement for use of the Kugenuma Holiday House. Ownershipof the house was transferred to the Kokubu General Partnership Company in1990, and to Kokubu Co., Ltd. in 2004. From this date, the building has beenused as a corporate dormitory.
What is outstanding about the Kokubu Holiday House is that the plot ispreserved along with the building. The large plot of about seven thousandsquare meters has not been reduced since it was owned by the Hachisuka
family. Mount Fuji can be seen to the west from the plot’s gentle slope. The
Matsugao Area, where this holiday house exists, has a grid-type street
pattern.2 Until the Meiji period, many family plots, including the Hachisuka
family plot, were larger than 3300 square meters. The Kokubu family
acquired the entire plot, built the house on its north side, and created a vast
lawn garden with a pond on its south side. In 1929, the Odakyū Enoshima
Line began service, and the Kugenuma Holiday House District became asuburban residential area. The residential area remains popular to thepresent day, evidenced by the continuing rapid subdivision of the older
residential plots.2 Meanwhile, the Kokubu Holiday House plot retains its size
from the Meiji era. This plot is a precious property to demonstrate theexpansive landscape of the original holiday house district in Kugenuma.

［Fig. 5］ Main entrance (present)［Fig. 6］ North façade (present)

228

Transfer the history of the house
The Kokubu Holiday House building mainly consists of three blocks: thetwo-storied hip-roofed west block; the two-storied gable-roofed east block;and the single-story block in the middle, containing the lounge, the dining
room, and the kitchen (Fig. 1). Currently, all roofs are covered with deep red
pantiles, which, paired with the white walls with mortar finish, evokes thelook of a Spanish-style house. All roofs were originally covered with slate, butwere renovated in 1993 (Fig. 2). In the single-story block, one of the gableroofs shows its end on the south façade, and stacked multiple gable ends
create an impressive composition on the north façade (Fig. 6). There are
beautiful Tudor style decorations, such as the rough-hewn corbel around theentrance and the arabesque ironware.
For the floor plan, the east block initially had only Japanese-style rooms
on both floors. All windows and outside doors have sliding glass doors. In
contrast, the west block only has Japanese-style rooms on the second floor.
The first floor of the west block, including the single-story block, has only
Western-style rooms. However, this Western-style building includes a lot ofJapanese-style elements. Large sliding doors and lattice-style ranma(transom window) are used in the large veranda on the south of the firstfloor and in the sunroom on the second floor (Fig. 7).
The east and the west blocks seem to be connected without any
boundary, but these blocks are quite different in terms of their plans andelevations. The east block is lower than the west block in terms of the heightof the floor, the ridge, and the eaves. Except for the ookabe-style (columns
are hidden in a wall) exterior wall, the floor plan and the exterior fixtures ofthe east block are all Japanese-style (Fig. 10). Each Japanese room is a simple
design with no nageshi (horizontal timber, especially used above openings),
and thick columns and ceiling cornices.
Interestingly, the east block was not in fact built as a new building. The
drawings archived by Shimizu-gumi refer to the east block as the old building.
One of the archived layout drawings indicate where the building was located.
This drawing does not name the location, but the plot depicted is a narrowplot with a street on the north and a river bank on the south, and has been
identified as the location of the main residence of the Kokubu family inIzawa-cho, Matsusaka, Mie. One of the many buildings on the main
residence plot matches the east block of the Kugenuma Holiday House.
Therefore, the east block was relocated from the main residence in Izawacho to Kugenuma.

229

［Fig. 7］ Veranda on the firstfloor (present)［Fig. 8］ Staircase of the west
block (present)［Fig. 9］ Drawing (South elevation)［Fig. 10］ South façade of the east
block (present)［Fig. 12］ Japanese-style room on
the second floor of the west block(present)［Fig. 11］ Reception room on thefirst floor of the west block(present)

230

Why was the east block building relocated from Izawa-cho? According to
the land ledger, the Kugenuma Holiday House was purchased in the name of
Chika, the eldest daughter of Kanbee IX and the wife of Kanbee X. The east
block has a powder room on the first floor, so it is presumed to be designed
for a woman. The exact reason is unclear, but it is likely that the building
related to Chika was relocated from the main residence.
According to the report Mie-ken no kindai wafū kenchiku sōgō chōsa
hōkoku (Report of the general survey of modern Japanese-style architecturein Mie Prefecture), buildings at the main residence in Izawa-cho were built in
the Meiji period or the Taisho period.3 These buildings are pure Japanesestyle buildings with hip-and-gable tiled roofs and clapboard siding walls. In
the initial elevation drawing, the relocated east block in Kugenuma was also
drawn with a hip-and-gable roof and clapboard siding walls (Fig. 9). Thus, thishouse was actually planned as a Japanese-style/Western-style building
parallel type, with a new Western-style building built and connected to an
existing Japanese-style house. However, in the photograph taken just after
completion of the construction, the roof was the same as the existing gableroof, and covered with the same slate used for the newly built blocks. The
walls were also converted to ookabe-style walls (Fig. 2, 10). Instead of
keeping the relocated old east block building in its original form, the building
was redesigned to harmonize with the new blocks.
Protect the former holiday house as a company
Hiroshi Ōtomo, the architect who designed the Kokubu Holiday House,
was a staff member of the residence department in Shimizu-gumi. Ōtomo
was among the top architects of the department who designed Kaichirō
Nezu Secondary Residence (in Atami, p.74), as well as Tsunekichi Niitsu’s
main house (in Niigata) and secondary house (in Izunokuni, p.174). The
Kokubu Holiday House further demonstrates his excellent design skills.
For example, the lounge on the first floor has a Tudor style interior with aneda-tenjō (ceiling with exposed joists) of the adzed timber. His superb
design sensibility is applied to the fireplace of horizontal scratched tiles andcolored tiles, the fixed shelf next to the fireplace, and the art deco style
stained glass (Fig. 3, 4). Four Japanese-style sliding doors can be opened toconnect the lounge and the dining room. In the reception room, the ceilinghas a shikkui plaster finish and an ornament at the center, there is adecorative shelf inspired by chigai-dana (Japanese-style staggered shelf),
and a stylish round window with stained glass in a geometric pattern (Fig. 11).
Several design plans were created for the reception room and the lounge,
and their design was drastically changed around March 1931. Ōtomo musthave devoted a great deal of time and effort for the design of these rooms.
231

His Japanese-style design elements are also exceptional, especially in thewest block. The handrail of the staircase features a checkered pattern,
intended to create a fitting approach to the Japanese rooms on the second
floor (Fig. 8). The observation room on the west side has ajiro-tenjo(wickerwork ceiling), while the room has wood panel flooring suitable forchair seating. The Japanese rooms on the second floor showcase more of his
refined design elements, such as menkawa-bashira (rounded square column
with remaining bark on corner), thin nageshi, and vermillion-lacquered tokogamachi (front wooden cover of the raised decorative alcove) (Fig. 12).
Handrails outside of the windows are supported in the same span of glass
panels, creating a streamlined, neat impression.
The effort to maintain the interior as it was originally made has produced
another form of value for the Kokubu Holiday House. A series of renovations
were conducted over time to convert the space to a corporate dormitory. In
1990, the dining room and kitchen were expanded, and part of the livingroom was converted into a large bathroom. In 1993, its roof was converted
to a tiled roof, and sashes were installed as exterior fixtures. However, themain parts of the building were kept close to their original form. Because thecorporate dormitory is in continued use, maintenance has been conducted
regularly, and both the building and its garden are in good condition. Part of
the reception room ceiling was destroyed by the 2011 Great East Japan
Earthquake, but it has since been repaired to recreate its original form.
The Kokubu Holiday House is an example of how a company can inheritand utilize the former house of its past president. Similar to Zenjirō Yasuda
Holiday Residence (p.234), this house has intangible value beyond individualuse. Currently, the house is also used for employees and their families tosocialize. Due to its proximity to beaches and Enoshima Island, the building isused most frequently during summer. Although its current state is different
from its original purpose, the house is still used and appreciated by many.

232

［Fig. 13］ Initial floor plan

【Notes】
1. Tomoko Makita, “Fujisawa, Kugenuma, Katase, and Kamakura: Enoshima taigan
bessōchi kara tsūkin kōgai e” [Fujisawa, Kugenuma, Katase, and Kamakura: transition
from a holiday house district on the other side of Enoshima Island, to a suburb forcommuters], Kindai nihon no kōgai jūtakuchi [Suburban residential area inmodernized Japan], Kajima Institute Publishing, 2000
2. Yoshiko Mizunuma, Hitomi Kato, Nobuharu Suzuki, “A study on the transformation of
the scene structure and housing development in Shonan area—analysis of location
characteristics of suburban residential and early cottage area”, Memoirs by the
Housing Research Foundation, No. 33, 2006
3. Mie-ken no kindai wafū kenchiku sōgō chōsa hōkoku [Report of the general survey ofmodern Japanese-style architecture in Mie Prefecture], Mie Prefecture Education
Board, 2008
【Sources:】
Fig. 1, 3, 5-8, 10-12: Photographs taken by the Committee (December 2017)
Fig. 2, 4, 13:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture
catalog], vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 9:Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

233

4-7

Zenjirō Yasuda Holiday Residence

Tragic holiday house of the founder, preserved as a memorial
Asae Ozawa［Fig. 1］ East façadeof the tea house(present)［Fig. 2］ East façade of the tea
house (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 4］ Inside of the tea house(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Inside of the tea house(present)234

［Fig. 5］ Grave of Zenjirō I at theholiday house
LocationŌiso Town (Naka District, Kanagawa) - #31

Completion

Tea house: October 1928
Jibutsudō (private Buddha statue hall): its ridge beam was raisedin June 1930
Kyōzō (storage of Buddhist scripture): March 1931
Tea house: Shimizu-gumi (on site)
Jibutsudō, kyōzō, and hirakaramon (eaves-side-entry gate with
undulating gable ends) were based on the ideas of Yukihiko
Yasuda.
Tea house: wood, single story
Jibutsudō: wood, single story
Kyōzō: wood, single story
Hirakaramon: wood, gate with roof

Architect

Structure

Main Purpose

Holiday house → Corporate welfare facility

Plot Area

About 2000 tsubo (6612 sq. m)

Floor Area

Tea house: 12 tsubo (40 sq. m)
Jibutsudō: 9.51 tsubo (31 sq. m)Kyōzō: 6.99 tsubo (23 sq. m)
Private property (temporarily accessible during select limited
times)

Public Access235

Tragic holiday house of Zenjirō Yasuda IŌiso is one of the greatest seaside holiday house districts in the Shōnan
area since the opening of the seaside resort by Jun Matsumoto in 1885.
Elder statesmen, such as Hirobumi Itō, Kinmochi Saionji, Shigenobu Ōkuma,
and Munemitsu Mutsu, owned holiday houses there, and the number ofholiday houses exceeded two hundred at the end of the Taisho period.1
Recently, the district has attracted attention for the restoration in 2017 of
Shigeru Yoshida House, which had burnt down in 2009, and Meiji kinen Ōisoteien kōsō, the modern holiday house preservation project to mark the 150th
anniversary of the start of the Meiji period (from 2018).
The coastal holiday houses of the abovementioned people are famous,
but many other politicians and businessmen built their holiday housesaround the hilly area to the north of the Tōkaidō road. A major example ofexisting houses is the Zenjirō Yasuda Holiday Residence. Zenjirō Yasuda I(1838-1921) was the eldest son of the lower-class samurai of the Toyama
Domain. After working for a bonito flake merchant and an apprentice to amoney changer in Edo, he opened his own money changing house Yasudaya
in 1864. In the transitional period after the Meiji Restoration, his financial
business flourished, and he formed a financial conglomerate around Yasuda
Bank.2,3
In 1917, the Yasuda family purchased the former house of Sōichirō Asano,and registered it under the name of Yoshio Yasuda, the fourth son of Zenjirō.
This purchase began the history of the Yasuda family’s holiday house in Ōiso.
Asano, also from Toyama, knew Zenjirō previously and had supported
Zenjirō’s financial ventures, such as a landfill project in the Keihin Industrial
District. Asano had owned a holiday house at the foot of Mt. Ōjō, but thehouse was damaged by fire, so Asano moved to another plot around Mt.
Koma to the east of Mt. Ōjō, and the original plot was offered to Zenjirō
Yasuda. In 1918, Yasuda built a house, named it Juraku-an, and began to use
it as his main residence.4
Tragedy struck on September 28th, 1921, three years after completion of
the house, when Zenjirō I was assaulted and killed by an attacker in thereception room of the house. As dictated by his will, a graveyard was createdfor Zenjirō I behind the house on the hillside of Mt. Ōjō. Because of themurder, the holiday house in Ōiso became a special place for mourning
Zenjirō I, rather than just a house (Fig. 5).

236

After his death, Zenjirō I’s wife Fusako continued to live in the house inŌiso until her death in 1930. Zenjirō II inherited the house and planned
improvements for the house to serve as a place of repose for the souls of his
parents. Remaining buildings on the plot are the former holiday house, a tea
house and memorial buildings such as jibutu-dō (private Buddha statue hall).
This property is carefully preserved as the corporate dormitory of one of thecompanies founded by the Yasuda family. An event to open the garden andconduct a tea ceremony is held once or twice a year.

Tea house associated with Zenjirō Yasuda I
The main building that Zenjirō I built in 1918 was damaged by the Great
Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Zenjirō II, who had already planned to convert themain building into a museum, decided to restore the building on the sameplot, but moved the location of the building to the east. The new building
was built by Ginjirō Fujimura (藤村 銀次郎) in 1926.5
Following construction of the new building, the tea house was designed
and built by Shimizu-gumi in 1928 (Fig. 1-4, 8, 9). The staff in charge was
Ryūichi Okudaira (奥平 隆一), and the carpenter was Bunji Sekimoto (関本文治). This tea house is the only building included in the Catalog. The
connection between the Yasuda family and Shimizu-gumi began with theconstruction of Yasuda Memorial Hall at the University of Tokyo. The building
was designed by Yoshikazu Uchida and Hideto Kishida, and constructed from
1923 to 1925. Shimizu-gumi also built branches of Yasuda Bank and the
Yasuda family cemetery (1928, designed by Shintarō Ōe) in Gokoku-ji Temple.
Beginning with the tea house, all the memorial buildings were designed andbuilt by Shimizu-gumi, as explained later (Fig. 6, 7).

［Fig. 7］ Complete view of the ŌisoHoliday House (photo taken just after
completion)［Fig. 6］ Complete view of the ŌisoHoliday House (present, used as awelfare facility)237

［Fig. 8］ Outside of the tea house(present)［Fig. 9］ Inside of the tea house(kininguchi side, present)

According to Kōji shunkō hōkusho (Construction completion report),
construction of the tea house had started on March 15th, 1928, and ended
on October 30th, 1928. However, Ten’in Haichi-hyō (Staff allocation chart) of
the same year describes the work as “tea house relocation work”, andindicates that the building was relocated, not newly built.
Zenjirō I is one of the first-generation modern sukisha (tea ceremony
enthusiasts) who began doing tea ceremonies around the year 1880, andheld the title of Shō’ō. The reason he started doing tea ceremony isconnected to his purchase of the former Tayasu House in Honjo-Yokoami-Chō
as a reserved house in 1879. This house had a tea house imitating Yūin, thefamous tea house of the Urasenke school of Japanese tea ceremony, with thesize of four and half tatami mats. According to the book Shō’ō chakaiki, therecord of tea ceremonies he held or participated in, he owned five tea
houses, including one in the former residence of Akimasa Ikeda, which
Zenjirō I had used as a main residence since 1891.2, 3 The plan of the tea
house in Ōiso is also inspired by that of Yūin, while it is flipped horizontally.
After the death of Zenjirō I in 1921, Zenjirō II donated the main residence toTokyo City in 1922, which is now used as the former Yasuda Garden. The
reserved house was seriously damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake in
1923, and the plot was converted to other uses such as the site of Tokyo
Hozen Commercial School.3 The tea house in the Ōiso Holiday House was
likely relocated from one of these residences. The tea house associated with
Zenjirō I must have been relocated to Ōiso to preserve it.
However, the actual tea house does not look like a tea house of former
feudal lords. In this building, the distance between the centers of twocolumns is six shaku (about 1.8 meters), which is unusual. Components ofthe building are relatively new, and they are unmarked by any scars.
Therefore, the tea house could have been built as a quasi-new building.

238

The tea house building has a mild hip-and-gable roof, and mainly consistsof a tea ceremony room (4.5 tatami mats) and a 5-tatami-mat room
functioning as mizuya (tea ceremony preparation room) and hiroen(Japanese style wide veranda). On two sides of the building, eaves protrude
about 90 centimeters and create deep dobisashi (eaves supported bycolumns on the ground). Its thin and sharp roof, originally roofed with singles,
is now roofed with pantile and copper tile (Fig. 1, 2, 8). The tea ceremonyroom has four and half tatami mats and geza-doko (decorative alcove at thecorner opposite the host). Both nijiri-guchi (small entrance for guests to
crawl through) and kinin-guchi (entrance for nobles to walk through) arepresent, and sado-guchi (entrance for host) and kyūji-guchi (service
entrance) are positioned around one corner. Compared with a modern tea
house in the Kanto area that uses many irregular timbers, this tea house uses
mainly straight timbers, except for toko-bashira (main pillar at the front of
decorative alcove) and kabe-dome (timbers filling the gap between an
exterior wall and the foundation). Its saobuchi-tenjo (battened ceiling) is alsoa simple one with cedar panels. The room has many openings, such as theranma (transom window) above the kinin-guchi, which indicates that thisroom was also intended for use as a living room (Fig. 3, 4, 9).
Memorial architecture planned by the Japanese-style painter Yukihiko
YasudaZenjirō II built three memorial buildings for his parents: jibutu-dō (Fig. 10,11), kyōzō (Fig. 12), and hirakaramon (Fig. 13). These buildings were plannedby the Japanese-style painter Yukihiko Yasuda, who lived in Koiso, Ōiso, near
the holiday house of the Yasuda family, and had a close relationship with
Zenjirō II. After Yukihiko accepted the request to plan them, he visited thesite, remembered The Tale of Genji, and had the inspiration to base his
designs on the “restoration of architecture during the Fujiwara period(around the 10th to 12th century)”.4［Fig. 10］ Front façade of the jibutsudō (present)［Fig. 11］ Inside of the jibutsu-dō(present)239

［Fig. 12］ Kyōzō (present)［Fig. 13］ Hirakaramon (present)

The completed design was based on the plan of Yukihiko Yasuda anddrawn by the engineer at Shimizu-gumi, Tokutarō Ozeki (小関 徳太郎). The
relevant drawings archived at Oiso Municipal Museum have Ozeki’s
nameseals. According to the drawings and the munafuda (tag withconstruction information, placed at a hidden higher place in a building) of
jibutsu-dō and kyōzō, the carpenter who built these buildings was also Bunji
Sekimoto, who had built the tea house. The ridge beam of the jibutsu-dō wasraised in June 1930. Construction of the kyōzō was completed in March 1931,
and the hirakaramon was also built around the same period. Architect
Mamoru Nakamura, the namesake of Nakamura Reinforced Concrete, visitedthese buildings and wrote a report in 1932.6
The jibutsu-dō was built on the site of the former reception room, thelocation of the death of Zenjirō I (Fig. 10, 11). The building has four columns
in the front, five columns on the side, and a hip-and-gable roof. On thenorth-east corner, a kyōshinjo (space for offerings) with a gable roof
protrudes from the building. Several elements of this building evoke theshinden-zukuri style: mildly warped roof covered with Japanese cypress bark(currently with copper plate); funa-hijiki (ship-shaped wooden bracket); andshitomi-do (latticed shutter) at the front of the building. The kyōshinjo is also
designed like a chūmonrō (corridor to divide the territory of a shinden-zukuri
style house). Notably, the entrance under the gable and the inokosasu (gable
ornament with sasu-flaming and strut) at the gable resemble the Shōryōin of
the Hōryūji Temple. Its interior is also in the classical style, with a finely
latticed coffered ceiling and broad-chamfered square columns. Shumidan(main altar), zushi (miniature shrine with double doors), and Buddhist altar
fittings were also designed by Yukihiko Yasuda. We can assume that its
keman (Buddhist hanging ornament) imitated that of the Konjikidō Golden
Hall of Chūson-ji Temple, and its lighting imitated the tsuri-toro (hanging
lantern) of the Seiryōden of Kyoto Imperial Palace.

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The kyōzō is a Azekura-zukuri building, a traditional joined log structurewith raised floor, measuring 18 shaku (5.45 m) wide and 14 shaku (4.24 m)
deep (Fig. 12). The roof was a hipped structure with hongawara roofing(alternating flat tiles and round tiles). Mamoru Nakamura stated that thekyōzō must have followed the Tenpyō style kyōko (storehouse) in front of the
Hokke-dō of Todai-ji Temple. However, based on its scale, height, and thedesign of its hip, it is more likely that the building imitated the kyōzō of
Tōshōdaiji Temple.
The hirakaramon is the chumon (inner gate) between the front yard andthe area with the memorial buildings (Fig. 3). The curve of the undulating
gable is reportedly taken from the curve of the zushi in the Shōryōin of
Hōryūji Temple. These two curves strongly resemble each other. The mild
slope of the roof, as well as the wide kaeru-mata (strut in a frog-leg shape)and hijiki (wooden bracket) supporting the ridge beam, recall the illustrationsof gates in emaki (illustrated handscroll) of feudal Japan.
These three buildings are all based on classical architectural designs of
the Nara, Heian, and Kamakura period. In a joint design process, Yukihiko
Yasuda, who specialized in historical paintings, envisioned the designs basedon classical buildings, and Shimizu-gumi built the new buildings. Shimizugumi’s skill in Japanese architecture, promoted through a wide variety ofworks, can be seen in the beauty of the warped eaves and detailed design,along with the precise arrangement of the finish. The intention tocommemorate Zenjirō I is expressed in gentle forms.
【Notes】
1. Ōiso no sumai: yado, machiya, bessō kenchiku hen [House in Ōiso: hotel, town house,and holiday house edition], Ōiso Town Education Board, 1992
2. Fumio Yano, Yasuda Zenjirō den [Life of Zenjirō Yasuda], Yasuda Hozensha, 1925
3. Tsunehiko Yui, Yasuda Zenjirō: kahō ha nette mate [Zenjirō Yasuda: everything comesto those who made efforts], Minerva Shobō, 2010
4. Tetsuzō Shigeta, “Ōjōyama ura-omote” [Everything about Mt. Ōjō], Awatara 2, 1981
5. Yoshiko Mizunuma, “Ōiso kaoku kanren gyōsei bunsho niyoru bessō kenchiku norireki” [History of holiday house architecture based on house-related administrative
documents of Ōiso Town], Architectural Institute of Japan Kanto Chapter Annual
Research Report, 2011
6. Mamoru Nakamura, “Yasuda-ke no jibutsu-dō” [Jibutsu-dō of the Yasuda family],
Atelier, July 1932 (included in Nakamura Mamoru Ikō [posthumous works of Mamoru
Nakamura], edited by Otowa Nakamura, Nakamura Mamoru Ikō Kankōkai, 1936)【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 6, 8-13: Photographs taken by the Committee (October 2018)
Fig. 2, 4:
Shimizu-gumi, Jutaku kenchiku zushū, vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 7:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

241

242

Chapter 5
Houses Supported with Design, Engineering,and Material

243

5-1

Eiichi, Tokuji, and Keizō Shibusawa
Residence

The house loved by an entrepreneur who led the modernization ofJapan, and the 140-year-long story sustained through three
relocations
Takako Hatada［Fig. 1］ Former Shibusawa
Residence in Rokunohe,
Aomori (inside Hoshino
Resorts Aomoriya,
relocated here in 1991)［Fig. 2］ After construction of theWestern-style building in Mita
Tsunamachi (1930)［Fig. 4］ Eiichi Shibusawa Residence and its
annex in Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho, left: Omote
Zashiki, two-storied wooden building
designed and built by Kisuke Shimizu II in
1878, right: annex, additionally built from thedesign of Sōtarō Okamoto between 1891 and
1900.
244

［Fig. 3］ Tokuji Shibusawa Residence in Mita
Tsunamachi (1908), center: Omote Zashiki,
the Japanese-style building designed by
Kisuke Shimizu II, right: Ohanare (mother’sliving space), presumably part of the former
residence of Viscount Kagenori Nire

Process of inheritance1876 (completion)

Eiichi Shibusawa
Purchased a merchant's house
at Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho, Tokyo.
1878
Japanese-style building Omote Zashiki
was built. (the Catalog, vol. 1, p.1)↓
1891
Tokuji Shibusawa～1900
Annex built as an addition.
1908
Relocated to Mita Tsunamachi, Tokyo.
Japanese-style building wasadded.
1930
Keizō Shibusawa
New Western-style building was built.
(the Catalog, vol. 1, p.100)↓payment in kind
1946
Ministry of Finance
Used as Ministry of Finance
Mita Kyōyō Kaigisho
↓sold
1990
Towada Kaihatsu Co., Ltd
1991
Restored and preserved
In Rokunohe, Aomori.
↓purchased
End of the Heisei period Shimizu Corporation
2023 (scheduled)
Relocated and preserved in Shiomi, Tokyo.

Location

Kōtō, Tokyo (scheduled) - #14

Completion

1878 etc.

Architect

Kisuke Shimizu II, Sōtarō Okamoto, Yoshitoki Nishimura

Structure

Wood, single story and two stories

Plot Area

Fukagawa: 830 sq. m→ Mita in 19301: 1102 sq. m

Main Purpose

Residence → Public facility

Cultural Property
Designation
Public Access

Kōtō Ward Designated Tangible Cultural Property (component, asof January 2020)
Open to the public after restoration (scheduled)245

【Notes】
1. From Shimizu Corporation, Kyū Shibusawa Tei kaitai oyobi ichiku kōji chōsa kiroku[Survey results of the disassembly and relocation of the former Shibusawa Residence],
1993

House of the tycoon Eiichi Shibusawa
Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931, hereafter Eiichi), the businessman who led
modernization of Japan, reportedly owned six residences throughout his life.
However, only one building of these residences remains, which is called
Omote Zashiki (Fig. 4). Eiichi acquired a property in Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho,Tokyo, and employed Kisuke Shimizu II (hereafter Kisuke II), the second
master of Shimizu-ya (present Shimizu Corporation), to build in addition the
two-storied Japanese-style wooden building there. While this residence has
undergone two relocations and multiple extensions since then, theJapanese-style building Omote Zashiki has always been the core of theresidence, and it preserves the original form of the building.
The former Shibusawa Residence, including Omote Zashiki, is a precious
record of the lifestyle of the Shibusawa family, a family that had anenormous impact on and legacy in modern Japanese history. Residents of thehouse included not only Eiichi, but also his eldest son Tokuji and Eiichi’s
grandson Keizō Shibusawa (the Governor of The Bank of Japan and theMinister of Finance who was also an accomplished folklorist of Japan).
At the end of the Heisei period, the former Shibusawa Residence was
acquired by Shimizu Corporation. The residence is scheduled to be relocatedto Kōtō, Tokyo and opened to the public in 2022 after restoration.
Former Shibusawa Residence with 140 years of history
In 1878, the Japanese-style building Omote Zashiki, the core of theformer Shibusawa Residence, was designed and built by Kisuke II. During theperiod from 1891 to 1900, Tokuji built an annex on the east of the Omote
Zashiki (Fig. 4).

246

The annex was a two-storied wooden building, designed by Sōtarō
Okamoto, an architect of Shimizu-ten (future Shimizu-gumi). The small annex
had an open and graceful design, in contrast to the solid look of the Omote
Zashiki. Engawa (Japanese veranda) were created on the south and westside of the first and second floors, and the design of the second floor withhandrails and the engawa resembled a multistoried tower structure.
Okamoto graduated from the department of architecture, Tokyo Imperial
University (present University of Tokyo), and joined Shimizu-ten in 1890. In
his youth, he visited Western countries and learned state-of-the-art
technology and design. In 1901, he became the fourth chief architect in thehistory of the company. As the manager of the engineering division and thedesign division, he led the future development of the company. He wasaccomplished in the execution of both Japanese-style and Western-stylearchitecture, and designed buildings as varied as residences, banks, factories,
and offices.
Eiichi’s son Tokuji later relocated the residence from Fukagawa to Mita
Tsunamachi, and conducted several extensions and renovations, concluding
in 1908 (Fig. 3). The layout around the Omote Zashiki was the same as that of
Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho, but the Okamoto designed annex was repositioned
to the west side, and a new single-story Japanese-style wooden building wasbuilt between the annex and the Omote Zashiki. Presumably, this Japanesestyle building was also designed by Sōtarō Okamoto. The hut on the east of
the Omote Zashiki is assumed to be part of the former residence of ViscountKagenori Nire, the former owner of this plot, but there is no actual evidenceof this.2 This Japanese-style hut was used by Atsuko, Tokuji’s wife and themother of Keizō. The drawing of this residence describes the small building
as “mother’s living space” (Fig. 5), but the Shibusawa family reportedly called
it Ohanare (annex) (Fig. 6).

247

［Fig. 5］ Floor plan of the Keizō Shibusawa Residence in Mita Tsunamachi in
1930, after construction of the Western-style building［Fig. 6］ Ohanare (mother’s living space)in Rokunohe248［Fig. 7］ Former Shibusawa Residence
after relocation to Rokunohe, Aomori,left: Japanese-style building (1st story in
1908, 2nd story in 1930), right: Omote
Zashiki［Fig. 8］ Extended Japanese-stylebuilding (1930) of the former Shibusawa
Residence after relocation to Rokunohe,
Aomori (the building on the left in Fig. 7)

In 1930, Keizō started a major renovation of the residence (Fig. 2). The oldannex at the west end was demolished, and in its place a new Western-stylebuilding was built. In addition, a second story was added to the Japanesestyle building between the new Western-style building and the Omote
Zashiki (Fig. 7, 8). This Western-style building became the center of daily life
for Keizō’s family.
In 1946, just after the end of the Second World War, Keizō became the
Minister of Finance. Under the capital levy system he established, he parted
with the plot and buildings in Mita Tsunamachi as payment in kind. For about
fifty years, the former Shibusawa Residence, ceded by the Shibusawa family,
had been used as a conference hall, known as Mita Kyōyō Kaigisho of the
Ministry of Finance, but was at risk of demolition due to degradation of theold buildings. These buildings were saved by Yukio Sugimoto, president of
Towada Kaihatu Co., Ltd. and former long-time butler to the Shibusawa
family. To protect the residence and what it meant to Shibusawa family
history, in 1990 Sugimoto negotiated with the Ministry of Finance topurchase the buildings. They were subsequently relocated and restored in
Rokunohe, Aomori, the town associated with the Shibusawa family (Fig. 1).
The former residence was open to the public until 2018.
Currently, Shimizu Corporation owns the buildings of the former
Shibusawa Residence, and plans are being made for a relocation to Tokyoand the next phase of its life.

249

Mutual trust between the Shibusawa family and Shimizu-gumi
From their presence in Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho to Mita Tsunamachi,
Rokunohe, and Kōtō, the buildings of the former Shibusawa Residence havealways been connected to Shimizu Corporation.3 The connection began withthe relationship of Eiichi and Kisuke II. Kisuke II was a carpenter with apioneering spirit and a leader in the early stages of modern Japanesearchitecture. At the end of the Edo period, he recognized early on the needto learn Western architecture, and he created the new architectural style
Giyōfū (pseudo-Western-style), which was applied to buildings such as Tsukiji
Hotel Kan (1868) and Daiichi National Bank (1872). Daiichi National Bank was
the first bank established in Japan, and as its commissioner, Eiichi Shibusawa
forged a deep mutual trust with Kisuke II. Even after the death of Kisuke II,
the bond between Eiichi and Shimizu-gumi continued. Eiichi served as anadviser to Shimizu-gumi for nearly thirty years, from 1887 to 1916, andprovided instruction and support for management of the company.
Shibusawa’s credo, “The Analects and the abacus”, formed the guiding
management principle for the actions of Shimizu Corporation.
In addition to the residence in Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho and two otherresidences of the Shibusawa family, Shimizu-gumi also built Bankōro (1917,
Important Cultural Property) and Seien-bunko (1925, Important Cultural
Property), two buildings in Asukayama Park associated with Eiichi. Shimizugumi presented Bankōro to Eiichi upon his seventy-seventh birthday. Eiichi
loved this small teahouse and hosted many guests there until his death.

Architectural gem made of traditional style and Western style
Omote Zashiki, the Japanese-style building built by Kisuke II, is the largest
building in this residence. The second floor is dedicated to hosting functions
for guests, and its impressive design utilizes precious woods and finecraftsmanship (Fig. 9-11). For the tokobashira (main column of thedecorative alcove) of the guest room on the second floor, a decoratively
carved nandina tree was used (Fig. 12). The ceiling is made of large panels ofjindai sugi (old cedar tree excavated from underground) with kujaku mokume(grain resembling peacock feathers). In an innovative design touch, thesepanels mirror the layout of the tatami mats on the floor. Japanese-stylerooms on the first and second floors have a ranma (transom window) with
openwork of peach or grape trees, and carvings by the skillful sculptor Zuishō
Hotta gracefully decorate the room (Fig. 13).4250

［Fig. 9］ Living room on the first floor of
Omote Zashiki in Rokunohe［Fig. 10］ Living room on the first floor of
Omote Zashiki in Rokunohe［Fig. 12］ Nandina
tree toko-bashira in
the guest room on
the second floor of
Omote Zashiki in
Rokunohe［Fig. 11］ Guest room on the second
floor of Omote Zashiki in Rokunohe［Fig. 13］ Ranma of a peach tree decorating the guest room of
Omote Zashiki in Rokunohe［Fig. 14］ Blackpersimmon
newel post
inside Omote
Zashiki in
Rokunohe［Fig. 15］ Black persimmon balusters
inside Omote Zashiki in Rokunohe251One of the most distinctive features of Kisuke II’s design is the staircase.
Several different precious trees are used, such as black persimmon tree fornewel posts and balusters, rock cotoneaster tree for handrails, Japanesezelkova tree for the sawtooth stringer, covered by a panel with a wave
pattern, and the treads (Fig. 14, 15). These rare trees were personallyselected by Chiyo, Eiichi’s wife, at the lumberyard. Japanese-style andWestern-style design are in perfect harmony in the design of the stairs. The
preferences of Eiichi and Chiyo, who favored timeless quality over showiness,are perfectly expressed by the skilled work of Kisuke II.
In contrast, the Western-style building, designed by Yoshitoki Nishimura,
was intended to copy the exterior appearance of a British royal residence.
Like Omote Zashiki, many high quality timbers were used in the Westernstyle building. This building contains seven rooms of different sizes, such as
the entrance, guest room (Fig. 16), reception room (Fig. 17), study (Fig. 18),
and dining room (Fig. 19). The front entrance and reception room arefinished in teak, and the dining room is finished using oak. The deliberatechoice of these woods for these rooms was to create a calm atmosphere.
Nishimura’s modern and delicate design is evident throughout the building,such as in the plant pattern of the ceiling and crown molding, and the metal
window fittings and lighting fixtures imported directly from England. Theseelements added graceful and tasteful touches to the decor of each room.

［Fig. 16］ Guest room on the first floor of
the Western-style building in Rokunohe［Fig. 17］ Reception room on the firstfloor of the Western-style building inRokunohe［Fig. 18］ Study on the first floor of theWestern-style building in Rokunohe［Fig. 19］Dining room on the first floor of
the Western-style building in Rokunohe

252

The extended second story of the Japanese-style building between the
Omote Zashiki and the Western-style building are also presumed to be
designed by Nishimura (Fig. 7, 8). This story is constructed in more of aJapanese-Western-eclectic style. Its hip-and-gable roof is covered withpantiles, and its exterior walls of vertical shiplap siding contain someWestern-style windows. For construction of the Western-style building,
Nishimura must have resolved to preserve Omote Zashiki as the core of the
Shibusawa Residence and coordinate the transition from the Japanese-style
Omote Zashiki, through the Japanese-style building (its first story was built in1908) with the eclectic-style second story (1930) in the middle, culminatingin the new Western-style building. In the Western-style building, the mostmodern innovations of the period were installed in the kitchen and latest
technology was used for the heating system. It is a valuable example of amodern house of the early Showa period, encapsulating how housing andlifestyles have changed over time.
Yoshitoki Nishimura graduated from the department of architecture,
Tokyo Imperial University, in 1912. After working at the design department of
Shimizu-gumi from 1914 to 1920, and serving as manager of the architecture
section of Dai-ichi Bank, he opened his own architectural design firm,
Nishimura Kenchiku Jimusho, in 1931. He designed various buildings,
especially banks.

Cultural heritage revived after 140 years
The residence, loved by Eiichi and occupied by the Shibusawa family forthree generations, is now roughly one hundred and forty years old. Despite
many challenges for the buildings, such as earthquakes, the Second World
War, and a series of relocations, extensions, and renovations, the residence
has been carefully preserved. There are several important factors thatenabled this preservation. Outstanding traditional techniques can be foundin Omote Zashiki, the Japanese-style building designed by Kisuke II. The
sublime design of Nishimura can be observed in the Western-style building
as it originally was. The residence is a valuable example of theJapanese/Western-style-building parallel type house in the early Showa
period.

253

In addition to these factors, the successive relocations were feasible
largely due to the high quality materials and the traditional Japaneseconstruction methods used, such as the presence of precise fittings, couplers,and connectors. Above all, the many stakeholders, including each client,carpenters, craftsmen, architects, and engineers, had firm resolve and a clear
commitment to the preservation of the residence. The former Shibusawa
Residence is sometimes called “the very fortunate house”. We are fortunatethat the residence has been sustained as a cultural heritage site and arepository for the accumulated stories of a long family history.
【Notes】
2. From Teijirō Muramatsu, Mita Kyōyō Kaigisho kenchiku ni kansuru shoken (kyū Mita
Tsunamachi Shibusawa hontei) [Opinion about architecture of the Mita Kyōyō Kaigisho],May 13, 1975, archived at Shimizu Corporation
3. History of the company name of Shimizu Corporation—From foundation to 1881:
Shimizu-ya; from 1881 to 1915: Shimizu-ten; from 1915 to 1948: Shimizu-gumi; andfrom 1948 to present: Shimizu Corporation.
4. Zuishō Hotta (1837-1916) was skilled in carvings on rosewood. One of his major works
is Rōkaku Sansui Shidan-gaku, in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum.
【References】
1. Shimizu Corporation, Kyū Shibusawa Tei kaitai oyobi ichiku kōji chōsa kiroku [Survey
results of the disassembly and relocation of the former Shibusawa Residence], 1993
2. Gen Kawakami, Komaki “Kyū Shibusawa Tei” no kenchiku ni tsuite [About architectureof the former Shibusawa Residence in Komaki], 1992
3. Kiseki no jūtaku [Miracle residence], NARUphoto, 2016
4. Seien: newsletter of Shibusawa Memorial Museum, No. 75-76
Sources:Fig. 1, 14, 15:
Photographs taken by the Committee (October 2017)
Fig. 2, 3:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 4:Courtesy of Shibusawa Memorial Museum
Fig. 5:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū, vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 6-13, 16-19: Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation (photographs taken by NARUphoto)254

Analysis

What Inherited Residential Architecture Tells
Us
This book introduces existing residential buildings from Shimizu-gumi
Jutaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture catalog). Of course, there arepresently other examples of buildings outside of the Catalog that have seen
sustained use over a long period of time.
An examination of their past reveals these buildings have diverse histories.
Some have been passed from generation to generation as family residences.
Still others have parted ways with their initial owners and have been
converted to another use, such as a public facility, a cultural facility like a
museum, a corporate recreational facility, or the official residence of anambassador. Some buildings have been preserved as a house throughrelocations.
From the Taisho period to the Heisei period, houses were required totransform to meet environmental and social upheaval. Buildings had toendure major earthquakes and periods of war. As society, cities, andcityscapes change, our lifestyles change, necessitating changes in fixturesand functions of housing. Houses that have been carefully sustained
throughout history have done so because of their resilience and vitality.
In a present where most of the buildings we may wish to save cannot in
reality be saved, what accounts for the successful inheritance of thosebuildings that have survived? For this building survey, we interviewed those
who lived in or inherited each building. What emerges from these interviewsis that family attachment to the house is obviously important. At the sametime, this survey was a precious opportunity to realize the importance oftrust in those who built the building, such as architects, carpenters, andcraftsmen. Strong trust in them was a strong factor for each house to be
inherited. Their superb skills and careful work do not deteriorate, and still
remain in time-tested work and materials. Those inherited buildings still in
their initial form point to the excellent skill of master craftsmen. As an expert
in architecture, it is a great pleasure that such well-crafted buildings havebeen inherited.
A house is one of the most powerful cultural artifacts to provide insight
into the lifestyle of people of that period. If residential architecture ismindfully protected and used continuously, it will absolutely convey its
heritage and memories into the future.
(Takako Hatada)255

［Fig. 1］ Chūbee Doi House (1930;
Owase, Mie): A house that remains
in the Doi family［Fig. 2］ Kichibee Murai Secondary House (1907;
Kyoto, Kyoto): Currently known as Chōrakukan,
used as a hotel and cafe.

［Fig. 3］ Kunizō Hara House (1938; Shinagawa,Tokyo): currently Hara Museum of Contemporary
Art【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2: Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 3:
Shimizu-gumi, Kōji nenkan [Construction yearbook], 1939

256

Tips to Preserve Buildings III

Reassemble or Move as a Whole: Structure
Relocation as a Preservation Method

If a building is truly preserved, it should of course be preserved at theplace where it was originally built. Each building is inextricably intertwinedwith its topography, surrounding environment, climate, and local culture.
However, in order to save a building, it is sometimes necessary toseparate the building from its closely associated plot. For example, when thecost of land is extremely high, land use must be maximized. If this is the case,
it is difficult to preserve a building with the unique character of the plot andits surrounding landscape. This frequently happens when people try topreserve a building near the center of large cities.
On occasion, buildings that cannot be preserved on their original plot aregathered and preserved at an open-air museum of architecture. Examples
include The Museum Meiji-mura, an open-air museum of modern
architecture, and the Japan Open-air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minkaen),an open-air museum that mainly collects vernacular, that is domestic andfunctional, houses of the Edo period. These museums were founded during
the post Second World War growth period, during which historical buildings
were often demolished for the sake of using the land for maximum capitalgain.
Building relocation methods can be generally divided into two types:
disassembly and reassembly; and moving as a whole. The first method,
disassembly and reassembly, entails disassembling a building into its
components and reassembling them at another location. The process
reverses the steps of construction and breaks down the building into its
various components. It is necessary to precisely note the location and use ofeach component for future reassembly. A tag, known as banzuke, with thelocation and identification number is often attached. After this lengthy
process, the components are removed, and damaged components arerepaired. Upon reassembly, the building is restored into the original form at
another site.

257

The second method, moving as a whole, is a way to move the entire
building without disassembly (Fig. 1). Whenever a building is disassembled,
any mud wall needs to be demolished, and there is a risk of damaging or
destroying components. On the other hand, when a building is moved as awhole, the quality of the building can be sustained during relocation. One
limitation is the distance between two locations. To move it as a whole, abuilding is jacked up to the ground level, placed on wheels, and transported
to the new location on rails. Therefore, it is difficult to move farther. Recently,
this preservation method has also been used for large reinforced concretebuildings, such as the former Yi Un Residence in Tokyo. This building was
relocated as a whole within the same plot to develop the ground under thebuilding, then returned to near its original site.
Whether by disassembly and reassembly or by moving as a whole, it ispredicted that more buildings will be preserved through relocation. The
Eiichi, Tokuji, Keizō Shibusawa Residence in this book was also disassembled,
relocated, and reassembled. The part of the residence known as Omote
Zashiki, designed and built by Kisuke Shimizu II, was taken apart andreassembled three times in total: from Fukagawa Fukuzumi-cho to Mita
Tsunamachi in Tokyo; then to Rokunohe, Aomori; and lastly to Kotō, Tokyo(Fig. 2, 3).
Disassembly and reassembly and moving as a whole are methods that
initially emerged through development of Japanese wooden architecture as
long-lasting methods to utilize buildings and building components. It isnotable that such methods are still utilized at present.
(Seizō Uchida)［Fig. 1］ Moving JR Nijō
Station building as awhole (1990-1991, Thisbuilding is currently used
as a part of Kyoto Railway
Museum.)［Fig. 2］ Disassembly ofEiichi, Tokuji, Keizō
Shibusawa Residence【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2, 3: Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

258［Fig. 3］ Components arethoroughly inspected,
tagged, protected, andstored until reassembly.

259

5-2

Kōjirō Magoshi Secondary Residence

Design skill to enliven both Japanese style and Western styleJun Hatano［Fig. 1］ Main building andporch from the entrance(present): almost unchanged
since completion［Fig. 2］ Main building and porchfrom the entrance (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ South façade (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 3］ South façade (present): Sun porchon the first floor has been extended. On theright is the Japanese-style room section.

260

［Fig. 5］ Façade of the Japanese-style
room (present): airy design withstruts supporting the mawari-en (Lshaped veranda).

Process of inheritance1928 (completion)

Kōjirō Magoshi
Sold through arrangement by Suruga Bank

1953 to 2017 (present) Kabushiki Gaisha Dankōen
Location

Itō, Shizuoka - #43

Completion

July 1928

Architect

Shimizu-gumi1

Structure

Wood, two stories

Floor Area

160 tsubo (528 sq. m)

Main Purpose

Secondary house → House (partially used as the banquet hall of
Hotel Dankōen)

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)【Notes】
1. Kōji shunkō hōkokusho (Construction completion report) states that the building was
designed by Suteki Suzuki (鈴木 捨喜), staff of the architecture department of a beercompany.

261

Secondary residence for a businessman
For businessmen before the Second World War, a house played a greaterrole than just a place for the family. This applied to the main house and any
secondary house. Being a good host lent social credibility and prestige.
The initial owner of this secondary residence was Kōjirō Magoshi (18731935). He was the second son of Kyōhei Magoshi (1844-1933), known as “theJapanese beer king”. The senior Magoshi served as the president of the DaiNippon Beer Company, Ltd., as a member of the House of Representatives,and as a member of the House of Peers. Kōjirō was also a businessman,serving as the president of the Magoshi Dōzoku, a board member of DaiNippon Beer, Chosun Breweries, and Denki Kagaku Kogyo. Kōjirō held adoctoral degree in pharmacology and was involved in the development of
nutritional yeast.
Itō Onsen: a hot spring near Tokyo
This secondary residence is located in Itō Onsen, renowned as one of the
hot springs with the largest hot water resource in Japan. Due to its close
proximity to Tokyo, Itō Onsen became a locale for recreation and holiday
houses from the Taishō period to the early Showa period. After the Itō Linerailway opened in 1933, tourists started visiting Itō. In 1950, Itō City was also
designated as an International Tourism and Culture City.
One of the symbols of Itō Onsen is Tōkai-kan, a Tangible Cultural Propertyof Itō City. This building opened as a hot spring resort hotel in 1928, thesame year as the secondary residence was built, and underwent a large-scale
expansion in 1933. Its impressive belvedere was created in 1949. The hotel
closed in 1997, but the building was restored as a cultural facility of the city
in 2001.
Special annexes for hostingThis secondary residence is located along the Itō Ōkawa River leading to
Itō Port. After they passed through the stone columed gate, visitors would
have approached the main building and porch (Fig. 1, 2). Beyond the mainbuilding and a spacious lawn were four separate Japanese-style annexes.
Only one original annex remains, the other three are reconstructions. The
residence was specifically designed for guests to be received in the mainbuilding, and then hosted in one of the relaxing annexes.

262

Integrating a Japanese-style room and its airy exterior into a half-timbering
Western-style building
The main building is a two-storied L-shaped wooden building. The hipand-gable roof is covered with green glazed pantile (Fig. 3, 4). The exterior
walls are half-timbering that expose the wooden frame, but a Japanese-style
room is situated at the south-east part of the building. This room and its
façade are particularly airy in design. The Japanese-style room originally had
a tiled roof, but the roofing material was changed into thinner material suchas an asphalt shingle. The lean-to roof is roofed with a light copper panel.
The lower exterior walls of the Japanese style room are also different fromthe rest of the building. The exterior walls of the Western-style part havescratched tiles at the bottom, but the Japanese-style part has its foundation
below the second column from outside, and the irigawa-en (broad indoor
veranda) is supported by struts in order to appear lighter (Fig. 5). The sunporch, which protrudes from the south wall of the dining room, originally
had a tiled hip-and-gable roof, but this has been replaced by a shed roof of
copper panels.
The porch is supported by two sets of three columns, and the lower
section of each set of columns is covered with scratched tiles, and theentrance door is bordered with decorative tiles. The wickered pattern on the
doors matches the design of the floor tile (Fig. 6).
Refined main Japanese room and high quality dining room
There were three Japanese rooms for entertaining guests: the main
Japanese room with ten tatami mats; the 180-centimeter-wide corridor,
floored with tatami mats; and the adjoining room with six tatami mats andstorage space. The L-shape irigawa-en borders all three rooms. The tentatami-mat main Japanese room has tatami-doko (decorative alcove flooredwith tatami mats), tsuke-shoin (built-in desk), and chigai-dana (staggered
shelves) next to the alcove. The composition of the fine decorative wooden
frame of shōji (translucent paper sliding door) is particularly remarkable (Fig.
7).

［Fig. 6］ Porch (present): note finedetails such as the edges of the eaves
and the arrangement of scratched tiles［Fig. 7］ Main Japanese-style room(present): elegant design
263

The dining room is intended to be the showpiece of the building, with thehighest quality design and materials. The parquet floor is intricately
patterned, and latticed frames filled with chamfered mirrors are placed
under the uchinori-nageshi (horizontal timber above lintel). A tiled fireplaceis the focal point of one wall. Another wall features a rhombus shaped
stained glass panel and a built-in serveware cabinet, which opens from theback to enable access from the pantry off the dining room (Fig. 8, 9, 10). Teakwood from Taiwan was used for the interior woodwork. The door knobs andother metal hardware are also of fine quality materials.
The sun porch has been renovated the most of all the rooms. It was
initially treated as a semi-outdoor space, with a lean-to roof and tile flooring.
The terrace area was covered with reed screening. The depth of the roomhas since been extended, couches and carpets have been placed around theroom, and it is now used as a living room (Fig. 11).

［Fig. 8］ Dining room (present): theinterior has retained some features
such as the fireplace［Fig. 9］ Dining room (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 10］Dining room(present): wall
designed withbuilt-inservewarecabinet［Fig. 11］ Former sun porch (present)［Fig. 12］ Bathroom (photo taken justafter completion, from the Catalog):
Demolished. The colored glass window
and the skylight decorated the room
drawing the hot spring.

264

Memories of the original bathroom
In 1953, Takehito Kitaoka, then president of Dankō-en that operated ahotel on the next plot and father of the current president of the hotel
Takahito Kitaoka, accepted an offer from the Suruga Bank to purchase thebuildings and the plot. The property was called Magoshi-sō for a time, inorder to indicate it was the secondary residence of Kōjirō Magoshi.
The original bathroom had a pleasing atmosphere, but it flooded withriver water and fish after the Kanogawa Typhoon in 1958, and thus needed
to be rebuilt and the bathtub raised. According to the drawings and thephotographs taken after completion, the bathroom was at the semibasement level with an adjoining excavated sunken outdoor space. The walls
had colored glass windows, and it appears the ceiling had a skylight (Fig. 12).
High quality design and construction leads to sentimental attachment
The design of Kōjirō Magoshi Secondary Residence is unique andattractive. Even while integrating Japanese rooms into the Western-stylebuilding with half-timbering, the entire design of the building and exteriorremains flawless. Designing and building both a Western-style building and aJapanese-style building can be approached in different ways. For example,
they may be treated as separate buildings, or Japanese-style rooms may behoused inside a Western-style exterior design. In the case of this secondary
residence, the airy Japanese-style exterior is integrated without any change,
which indicates a high degree of design capability.
The main purpose of this secondary house was clearly to entertain guests,
as demonstrated by the refined authentic design of the main Japanese-style
room. The detailed high quality design is consistent from the porch and theentrance, to the reception room and the dining room. Compared with othercontemporary houses, this house has been designed and built to a very highstandard.
Ninety years after completion, this house still does not show any
degradation, thanks to high quality wood materials, excellent design andconstruction, and thorough maintenance by the current owner. Buildingsthat enjoy such attention and sentimental attachment, as this house does,
inevitably have a pleasant atmosphere.
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5-8, 10, 11: Photographs taken by the Committee (December 2017)
Fig. 2, 9:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residential architecture
catalog), vol.1, 1935
Fig. 4, 12:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation

265

5-3

Tachū Naitō House

The first house in Japan that integrated earthquake-proof andfireproof architecture into a design for modern lifestyles
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ South façade (present)［Fig. 2］ Front façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Living room (phototaken just after completion, fromthe Catalog)［Fig. 3］Living room (present)266

［Fig. 5］ South façade (present)

Process of inheritance1926 (completion)

Tachū Naitō↓
Arrangement by Tashirō Naitō↓
1970 to 2017 (present) Waseda University
Location

Shinjuku, Tokyo - #10

Completion

December 1926

ArchitectTachū Naitō, Shichirō Kigo; Cooperation by Kenji Imai

Structure

Reinforced concrete load-bearing wall structure, two stories

Plot Area

190 tsubo (628 sq. m)

Floor Area

105 tsubo (347 sq. m)

Main Purpose

House → Museum

Public AccessPrivate property (Visits are not permitted)

Challenge of earthquake resistance and fire resistance
Wood has been attracting a lot of attention recently in the field ofarchitecture. Contemporary architecture using wood has some prominent
examples, such as the new National Stadium in Tokyo. This trend can be
regarded as a reflection of Japanese architectural development, which has
been based on architectural trends of Western countries since the modern
period in Japan. In Western countries, architecture has shifted to rely on
newly manufactured materials, such as steel, glass, and cement, replacing
the former use of primary materials, such as stone, brick, and wood. It is
obvious that the concept and scale requested for architecture differ between
the pre-modern period and the modern period. These new materials haveprevailed as appropriate architectural material for new architecture.
267

In contrast, wooden architecture is one of the main features of traditional
Japanese architecture. After the beginning of the modern period, Japanesepeople generally seemed to dismiss wooden architecture and embrace
Western-style architecture and architecture using new materials. Thisdismissal has recently been reexamined. New materials were not chosen
simply to follow preferences in Western countries, as wooden architecture
had significant drawbacks, such as weakness against earthquakes and fire.
How to meet these challenges and overcome these drawbacks may be themost enduring question in the world of Japanese architecture.
It was Tachū Naitō, an architectural structure engineer, who tackled this
eternal question and proposed an answer in the building of Tachū NaitōHouse. Naitō was responsible for structural design, and he asked his closefriend Shichirō Kigo to design the building. Naitō and Kigo were close friends
from Tokyo Imperial University, with Naitō graduating one year after Kigo.
Naitō also worked with Kenji Imai for furniture design and other elements.
Shimizu-gumi completed the construction in 1926, just one year after theGreat Kanto Earthquake of 1925.
The building was made as a reinforced concrete load-bearing wall
structure, which was extremely unique. This is a landmark building and theearliest use of a load-bearing wall structure. After the earthquake in 1925,
the structure of Japanese buildings has been continually evaluated based onearthquake resistance and fire resistance. Structures have evolved fromwooden, to brick, then to masonry, and finally to reinforced concrete.

Scholar of building structure, Tachū Naitō
Naitō’s educational history is as follows: the old-system Kōfu JuniorHighschool; the First Higher School, Japan; and the department ofarchitecture, Tokyo Imperial University. At the First Higher School, his English
class was taught by Sōseki Natsume, who was writing his famous book
Botchan at that time. In the department of architecture, he wrote his thesis
on fire-proof architecture under the supervision of Toshikata Sano, one of
the first to study earthquake resistance in architecture. Naitō completed his
undergraduate program in 1910, but continued his study of steel structure atthe postgraduate level at the same university. While a graduate student heworked as a lecturer of the department of architecture in Waseda University,
opened in September of 1910. After graduation he became a professor at
Waseda university in 1913.
Naitō continued to study, and in 1917 he was able to study for a year in
the United States, where the steel skyscrapers of New York City and Chicago
had established the country as a pioneer in the field of steel structure.
268

New theory inspired by a suitcase
After landing in San Francisco, Naitō visited the University of California
and then journeyed to Washington D.C. During the train trip, his suitcase fell
apart. This commonplace, yet annoying, experience was the inspiration for a
new theory on earthquake-proof structure.
After returning to Japan, Naitō formulated a new theory based on two
experiences during his year abroad. Firstly, his suitcase had broken after heremoved partitions to make space for more items. Secondly, he recalled thestrong structure of the vessel he took to The United States, which was
divided by horizontal decks and vertical partition walls. The experiences
demonstrated the principle that partitions can reinforce a large structure andprevent its deformation. Naitō focused on these partitions, applied theprinciple to architecture, and developed the new idea of an earthquakeproof structure using load-bearing walls.
In 1921, Naitō had the opportunity to do structural design and implement
his new idea in two construction projects, the Industrial Bank of Japan
Building and the Kabuki-za Building. Coincidentally, the Great Kanto
Earthquake happened just after these buildings were completed, and they
suffered very little damage, which validated Naitō’s theory. After confirming
the effectiveness of his new theory, he designed his own residence using thesame principles.

Overview of the Naitō House
The Naitō house is one of the earliest reinforced concrete houses in Japan.
In addition, the load-bearing wall structure of the house was an entirely new
structural system. This new concept was applied to this house as the mostdesirable construction method for small-scale architecture.
From the exterior, the building is a two-storied cubic building with hardly
any decorative features. Despite its simplicity, the flat roof was an innovativeand modern design for the time (Fig. 1, 2). However, the openings of thehouse are similar to other Western-style houses after the Meiji period.
Openings on the garden side and the engawa (Japanese-style veranda) sideof the living room on the first floor have arches on the top and are taller thanusual dimensions. This building also does not have the conventional set ofhorizontal continuous windows of modernist architecture (Fig 3-5). Based onthese differences, the house can be seen as an example of the transition
from a classic Western-style house to a modern house.

269

The layout of the house is the middle-corridor type, having a corridor in
the middle to move between rooms. The maid’s room and kitchen occupy
the north side of the corridor, as was the custom of the period. However, thedining room is located in the north-west corner of the first floor, and thechildren’s room is on the south side, which prioritizes space for children in a
new and interesting way (Fig. 6).
The dining room has a wood panel floor and chair seating, and the
adjoining children’s room is connected by four sliding glass doors. The glass
doors can be slid back into the walls to open the rooms into a single space(Fig. 7, 8). It should be noted that the floor of the children’s room is about
thirty centimeters higher and covered with tatami mats. Integration of aroom with chairs and a tatami room for floor-seating was the very latest styleof the period. Kōji Fujii and Katsuya Yasuoka also applied similar designs totheir projects. This house reflected a new structural style as well as new
lifestyle trends (Fig. 7).

［Fig. 6］ Original floor plan

［Fig. 7］ Dining room (foreground) andchildren’s room (background)［Fig. 8］ Dining room (present)

270

The second floor contains a large study, two bedrooms, and twoconnected Japanese-style rooms at the back. The study has a large desk,book shelves, and a small sleeping space in an alcove. The decorative metal
fittings of the desk and shelves are of the art nouveau style, which is notconsistent with the construction period and design of the building (Fig. 9).
These pieces could have come from Naitō’s previous residence. The door andthe lighting fixtures do match the prevailing style of the period. Openings in
the lighting fixtures and the door are designed with mildly curved frames.
This design is similar to the dynamic design of expressionism (Fig. 10).
Shichirō Kigo, the architect who designed this house, was famous for his
Spanish colonial style design and art deco style design. However, comparedto the art deco interior of Kigo’s Nitta House in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, theinterior of this Naitō House is not very bright or airy. This design still hassome classic touches that characterize the transition from expressionism toart deco.
The main Japanese-style room and the adjoining room at the back of thesecond floor are traditional Japanese-style rooms. These two rooms are next
to each other, and separated by fusuma (paper sliding doors) and ranma(transom window). The interior walls are finished in the shin-kabe style,which exposes pillars on the surface of walls. However, the toko-no-ma(decorative alcove) and tana (shelf) are positioned on the west side of themain room, not the front of the room. This layout of the decorative elements
differs from traditional connected rooms (Fig. 11). The windows on the south
side of the main room are covered with shōji (translucent paper sliding
doors) from inside, but these windows look like standard double-hungwindows from outside. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the Japanese-style
room from outside, which indicates that the architect wanted to create theappearance of a Western-style building from the exterior. On the floor plandrawings, dimensions between two center lines of walls and columns arenoted, not dimensions between two surfaces, and therefore it is not clear
how the architect designed the Japanese-style room between the reinforced
concrete walls. Further research is needed to clarify this process.

［Fig. 9］ Furniture in the study (present)［Fig. 10］ Lighting fixture (present)271

［Fig. 11］ Main Japanese-style room
(photo taken just after completion)

Integration of earthquake-proof and fireproof architecture and modern
lifestyle
After the death of Tachū Naitō, his son Tashirō Naitō described his
father’s wishes as follows: “Before his death, he had a wish to donate thishouse to Waseda University, because this house was built with a lot of
support from people of the university.”1 After accepting the donation,
Waseda University renovated the sink area and the bathtub area on the firstfloor, and created a display space with the intention to use the building as amemorial museum. Book shelves were placed in the two Japanese-stylerooms on the second floor so the rooms could be used for storage, and thefloor of the Japanese-style rooms was converted to wood panels. Despite
these modifications, renovations were kept to the minimum, and thebuilding has been carefully handled to respect the importance of thebuilding.
Thanks to such considerate treatment, the condition of the building is stillclose to that of its original state. It is impossible to disassemble the houseand directly confirm the innovative structural methods used. However, there
is no thick column in the house, which indicates that it was not built with therigid frame structure. While it was more common to use the rigid frame
structure at that time, Naitō focused on the earthquake-proof function ofload-bearing walls, and applied the load-bearing wall structure that enables
a compact and strong structure. In terms of earthquake resistance, histheories played a significant role in the development of reinforced concrete
structures in Japan, and his house should be treasured as an example of anexperiment in the earliest phases. In addition to its innovative architecturaldesign, the house also embraces the lifestyle trends permeating the world ofarchitecture. From the structure, architectural design, and lifestyle itembodied, this house has value for inheritance on multiple levels.

272

［Fig. 12］ Elevation (front façade) and section (flipped image of the
blueprints)【Notes】
1. From Shinkenchiku Jutakutokushu, June issue, 2014
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 7-10: Photographs taken by the Committee (August 2017)
Fig. 2, 4, 6:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 11:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 12:
Courtesy of Waseda University Tachū Naitō Memorial Museum273

Analysis

Reinforced concrete houses before theSecond World War

Transition of reinforced houses in the Catalog: from the loadbearing wall structure to rigid frame structure
Contemporary reinforced concrete architecture is categorized into two
structural types: the rigid frame structure composed of walls and beams; andthe load-bearing wall structure that supports the building by walls, without
columns and beams. The former structure type has the advantage thatpartitions can be arranged freely and a large space can be created, but themass of the columns and beams is visible in the walls and ceiling of eachroom and creates uneven surfaces. On the other hand, the load-bearing wall
structure can create flat walls and ceilings, but the layout is less flexible andthe size of windows and doors is limited.
Shimizu-gumi acquired new technologies through the experience ofconstructing the following reinforced concrete buildings: Shibusawa
Warehouse (1909) that required fire resistance, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Yokohama
Branch (1911), and Kajima Bank Okayama Branch (1925). The first reinforced
concrete house was Masayuki Naruse House (1928, designed by Josiah
Conder). The Naruse House looked like a Western-style house made of brick,but it was actually made of reinforced concrete. With the exception of its
porch and columns around a fireplace, the entire building was supported bya load-bearing wall structure.
The number of reinforced concrete buildings increased noticeably after
their earthquake resistance was proven by the Great Kanto Earthquake in
1923. Prior to the earthquake, Shimizu-gumi had already built sixty-one
reinforced concrete buildings, according to the Kōji rirekisho (Construction
record).

274

Of the residences listed in the Jūtaku kenchiku zushū (Residentialarchitecture catalog), fifty-seven are confirmed as reinforced concretebuildings. Except for thirteen residences that were partially made ofreinforced concrete or which the structural material was unknown, six
residences were load-bearing wall structure buildings, and thirty-eight wererigid frame structure buildings. All of these load-bearing wall structurebuildings were built in the earliest period for reinforced concrete houses: fivewere completed between 1924, just after the earthquake, and 1926; and one
was completed in 1928. With the exception of one building designed inhouse by Shimizu-gumi, the design of these buildings was primarily byarchitects outside of the company: Goichi Takeda, Kōji Fujii, Tachū Naitō, andRaymond Architectural Design Office (two buildings). With the exception of
Tachū Naitō, the structural designers of these buildings are unknown.
In contrast, twenty-nine of the thirty-eight rigid frame structure buildings
were designed and built by Shimizu-gumi, including Naoto Katakura House(1926, Tokyo). Nine buildings were designed by outside architects, but
structural designers from Shimizu-gumi were involved with two of the
projects.
There are several possible reasons why Shimizu-gumi adopted the rigid
frame structure for reinforced concrete houses. Firstly, they had previous
experience in building rigid frame structure buildings. The company had used
the structure for storehouses, offices, and banks, and knew how to execute itproperly. Secondly, the rigid frame structure lent flexibility to floor plans.
Lastly, there was a need to create wide openings, as these were essential tothe connected Japanese-style rooms and engawa (Japanese-style veranda)
on the south side of a building.
The rigid frame structure evolved into the wall column rigid frame
structure. In this structural style, the rigid frame was composed of flat wallcolumns and beams. The style is seen in Shōtarō Shimomura House (1931,
Kyoto) and Kōtarō Ōshima House (1937, Karatsu). The style combined thebenefits of a flexible spatial layout, wide openings, and flat walls and ceilings
with the advantages of the load-bearing wall structure. In Korea andManchuria, the wall column rigid frame structure was modified with nonload bearing brick walls, and appeared in many houses as a mixed brick andreinforced concrete structure.
(Toshiaki Koguro)275

■Load-bearing wall structure house

Hamabe Genjirō House (1925, Kyoto), Tachū Naitō House (1926, Tokyo),design: Kōji Fujii
design: Shichirō Kigo, structure:
Tachū Naitō

Reischauer House (1926, Tokyo) by
Raymond Architectural Design Office(p.218)Stapleton House (1927, Yokohama)by Raymond Architectural Design
Office■Rigid frame structure house

Naoto Katakura House (1926, Tokyo)
by Shimizu-gumi, manager: Ken
Chigusa (千草 謙), structure: Eijirō
YoshidaMasanao Abe House (1927, Tokyo) by
Shimizu-gumi, manager: Ichitarō
Kusama, structure: Eijirō Yoshida276

■Wall column rigid frame structure house

Kotarō Ōshima House (1937, Karatsu),
manager of Osaka branch: Matsutarō
Okamoto (岡本 松太郎), structure:
Shinji Nitō (仁藤 信次)■Wall column non-bearing brick wall structure

Yoshigorō Nagao (長尾 吉五郎)
House (1935, Hsinking, Manchuria),
design: Manchuria branch designsection277

5-4Taizō Ishizaka Residence(The present official residence of the Ambassador of the
Republic of Bulgaria to Japan)

A house showing its charm through different uses of two parts ofthe building.
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ View ofthe entrance area
(west side, present)– Left: Mainbuilding completed
in 1934, Right:
Extension in 1937

［Fig. 2］ View of the entrance
area (west side, photo taken justafter completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Hall (first floor of themain building, photo taken justafter completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 3］ Hall (first floor of themain building, present)278

Process of inheritance1934 (completion)
1937

Taizō Ishizaka
Completion of the extension↓ conveyance
1958
Kyōdō Tatemono Co., Ltd.
↓ conveyance1971 to present (2018) The Republic of Bulgaria
Location
Completion
Architect
structure
Main purpose
Plot Area
Floor Area
Public Access

Shibuya Ward (Tokyo) - #19
Main building: 1934
Extension: December, 1937
Main building: Shimizu-gumi (Kotarō Unno)
Extension: Jin Watanabe
Reinforced concrete
Residence → Official ambassadorial residence
980 tsubo (3240 sq. m)
Main building: 132.5 tsubo (437 sq. m)
Extension: 89 tsubo (294 sq. m)
Closed to the Public (Visits are not permitted)

From a personal house to an official ambassadorial residence
There are several cases where a Western-style house, originally built as apersonal house for Japanese people, is used as an embassy-related building,such as an official ambassadorial residence. The official residence of thePhilippine Ambassador to Japan is the Former Yasuda House, and the official
residence of the Thai Ambassador to Japan is the Former Hamaguchi House.
Famously, the Former Jinkichi Watanabe House was used as the official
residence of the Sri Lanka Ambassador to Japan. In general, these houses
have certain features in common. In addition to the Western-style exterior
look of the house, various rooms are situated around a hall and a staircase
on the first floor, and many independent rooms are located on the second
floor. The rooms have high quality interior features, including furniture, andmodern fixtures and systems, such as a flushable toilet, a Western-stylebathtub, and central heating. The idea behind such houses is that theambassadors and their families can continue to live the comfortable lifestylethey were accustomed to in their home countries.
The official residence of the Bulgarian Ambassador to Japan was also
originally built as a private residence.

279

The building consists of two parts, a main building and an extension. Eachpart is a box-shaped reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof, and they
are connected at a corner (Fig. 1, 2, 14). Taizō Ishizaka, the original owner ofthe house, was the president of The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., Ltd. from1938. He graduated from law school (German law) at Tokyo Imperial
University in 1911, and then undertook graduate studies in finance. After
working as a lecturer at Waseda University, and in the Exchange and Postal
Savings Bureau of the Ministry of Communications, he began working at The
Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., Ltd. in 1915, where he later became Senior
Managing Director and President 1. His relationship with Shimizu-gumiseems to begin with the construction of an office building for the company.
This building, known as Dai-ichi Seimei Sōgō-kan, was completed in 1921.
The main building of the Ishizaka Residence was completed in 1934, andconstruction of the company’s headquarters began in 1935 (completed in
1938, designed by Jin Watanabe). At this time, Taizō Ishizaka was Senior
Managing Director and an important figure in the business world in Japan.
Construction of his personal residence must have instilled in him confidence
in the capabilities of Shimizu-gumi. Shimizu-gumi built a satisfactory highquality residence for the director, and a building for the company, so byextension they could be entrusted to construct suitable headquarters for thecompany.
The present form of the residence was created through construction of
the main building (completed in 1934) and the extension (completed in
December 1937). The main building was designed by Kotaro Unno of
Shimizu-gumi. Unno studied architecture in the department of architecture,
Tokyo Imperial University, and joined Shimizu-gumi after graduation. He
served as a head of the design department from 1927, a chief engineer from
1933, and a managing director from 1939 2. This house was conceived by the
top architect of the design department at Shimizu-gumi. By selecting Kotaro
Unno as the designer, Shimizu-gumi showed great confidence in andenthusiasm for his work, as well as the firm’s serious approach to the project.
The house’s extension was designed by Jin Watanabe, a leading architectin pre-war Japan. Watanabe, famous for his diverse design skills, must havebeen aware of how these skills played a part in his selection for the project.
His design reflects a strong desire to integrate the extension with the mainbuilding. This desire is clearly visible in the general composition of theexterior design, and in the particular details of openings, namely thewindows and doors. He chose their position to reflect those found in theexisting part of the house. However, he included touches of his own style byincorporating some modern accents. For example, tiles were used for thefinishing of the exterior wall, as in the main building, but he selected afashionable mosaic tile for the extension (Fig. 1, 2).
280

The Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria, the current owner, remodeled
and renovated the building to adapt it for its role as ambassadorial residence,
while demonstrating a strong commitment to sufficiently valuing the houseand preserving its unique charm. An owner who is able and eager toappreciate, maintain, and value the appeal of a building is precious indeed.
It is crucial to establish a social attitude and policies that both praise those
who work to preserve the attraction of architecture and support theiractivities. Timely action is of the essence in this case.

Special features of the house – Western-style part and Japanese-style part
The main building is a chair-orientated style house of Western-stylerooms and bedrooms on the first and second floor. There are also twoconnected Japanese style rooms on the second floor - a 12-tatami-mat “restand recreation room” and 8-tatami-mat room. In contrast, the extension ismainly composed with Japanese-style rooms on both the first and thesecond floor. The first floor has a secondary entrance, 10-tatami-mat “wife’sroom” with a kitchen and a balcony, and 8-tatami-mat maid’s room. The
second floor includes rooms such as a 12.5-tatami-mat “living room” withirigawa-en (broad veranda) covered with tatami mats, 8-tatami-mat tsugino-ma (adjoining room), and a bathroom. Within the context of an exampleof typical upper class house style after the Meiji era, the main building canbe regarded as a Western-style building, while the extension is a Japanesebuilding.

［Fig. 6］ View from the rear (south
side, photo taken just after
completion)［Fig. 5］ View from the rear (south
side, present) – Left: Extension in
1937, Right: The main building built in
1934

281

［Fig. 7］ Art Deco features with clear Wright influence (present)

Both the main building and the extension are reinforced concrete
structures. The main building has a modernist exterior appearance, with aflat roof and functional wide (60mm×227mm) tile finishing on the exteriorwall. However, openings on the entrance side (west side), such as double
hung windows, look somewhat old-fashioned due to their taller proportions(Fig. 1, 2). The rear face of the building (south side) has a terrace on the firstfloor and a balcony on the second floor. A large portion of the façadefeatures glass doors and many windows, which creates a sense of openness(Fig. 5, 6).
Some of these openings, such as the main entrance’s transom window,
are partially filled with stained glass of a geometric Art Deco style. Details ofsome of the main rooms, such as the reception room, guest room, study, anddining room, are very high quality and similar to the design style of Frank
Lloyd Wright. Wright’s style was very fashionable thanks to his visit to Japanfor the Imperial Hotel project, and was part of the greater Art Decomovement 3. Thus, Ishizaka Residence can be regarded as a house with Art
Deco style interiors showing clear Frank Lloyd Wright influences (Fig. 7). The
symmetrically composed guest room is filled with beautiful features, such asa central fireplace. There are also Japanese-style features, such as a wide
toko-no-ma (decorative alcove) style shelf opposite the rear wall openings(Fig. 8, 9).
282

［Fig. 9］ Guest room, main building(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 8］ Guest room, main building(present)［Fig. 11］ First floor, extension(present), a 10-tatami-mat Japanesestyle room was renovated into a
Western-style room with woodflooring［Fig. 10］ View from the rear,
extension (present)

As for the extension, the entrance side façade was designed to directlyreflect the main building. The mosaic tile finish of the exterior wall and its
tall openings evoke the same classical look as the main building. Yet unlike
the rear of the main building, the rear facing part of the extension has adistinctly Japanese character, with mainly Japanese-style rooms on both thefirst and second floor. A large opening with glass doors outside of theirigawa-en is a prominent feature of the exterior (Fig. 10). While the rearfacing sides of both buildings are quite open, the main building is
predominantly Western-style, while the extension is of traditional Japanesedesign.
Remodeling of the extension sustains and preserves the main building
Despite some repairs to a staircase and dining room, the main building
retains its original form.

283

The original decorative white bronze finished handrails and balusters
have been replaced. The reason for replacement is unknown, but we canassume it was possibly related to wartime demands on the supply of steel.
The dining room gave up some space to improve the function of a once-small
adjoining serving room. The dining room features a parquet floor andornaments on the ceiling, and the modification work is seamless, thanks tocareful craftsmanship (Fig. 12, 13). These modifications to the main building
are minimal and do not change the original composition of the original
building.

［Fig. 13］ Dining room, main building(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 12］ Dining room, main building(present)

In contrast, the extension underwent a large-scale renovation (Fig. 11). As
well as converting tatami mat flooring to wood flooring, the layout of rooms
was significantly altered. This is a fairly rare example of remodeling, with themain building keeping most of its original form and the extension going
through remodeling to make it fit for an official residence. Differences
between modifications to the two buildings must have stemmed from thedifferent characters of their original designs. Initially, the main building wasWestern style, and the extension was Japanese style. By remodeling theextension to make it suitable for a very different purpose and lifestyle, themain building could retain its original form.
Valuable design of the early modernism period
This building should be seen as a very precious work of modern-classic
design. The classic external composition of the entrance side is especiallyattractive and must be preserved through careful repair work. This buildingshows the quality of Japanese residential architecture in pre-war Japan.
Despite some partial repairs, the interior of the main building retains theatmosphere of its era.

284

It can be considered an example of latter stage Art Deco design, showing
the strong influence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, which prevailed inJapanese architecture from the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926) to thebeginning of the Showa era (1926-1989). Furthermore, as an example ofearly modern period construction, the quality of the design is superb. The
design skillfully integrated new architectural trends with traditional elements.
The early Showa period design of the Taizō Ishizaka Residence is still very
attractive, yet reflects the style of the period. The house’s heritage is
exceptional and this valuable building should be protected for the future.

Main building (1934)
2nd floor: rest/recreation room, bed room, etc.
(Western room & Japanese room)
1st floor: hall, guest room, dining room,
sunroom, etc. (Western room)

ENTRANCE

Extension part (1937)
2nd floor: living room, adjoining room, etc.
(Japanese room)
1st floor: wife’s room, maid’s room (Japaneseroom)［Fig. 14］ The main building and the extension part (simplified plan)【Notes】
1. From Jinji Koshinjo, Jinji kōshin roku [Directory of people], vol. 1, 1941
2. From Shimizu-gumi, Shahō [Company’s journal], October 1946
3. From Kōichi Yoshida, Nihon no Āru Deko nyūmon [Introduction to Art Deco in Japan],Ōkoku Sha, 2014
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10-12: Photographs taken by the committee (December 2018)
Fig. 2, 4, 9, 13:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture
catalog), vol. 2, 1939
Fig. 6:
Shimizu-gumi, Koji Nenkan (Construction Yearbook), 1939
Fig. 14:Created by the committee

285

5-6

Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence(present Ruri-kōin)

Modern Japanese-style house inherited through conversions of its
usage in Yase, Kyoto

Rie Nakayama［Fig. 1］ North façade of
Ue-no-dan (present)［Fig. 2］ North façade of Ue-no-dan(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 3］ Northwest façade: Shitano-dan on the right (photo taken
just after completion)［Fig. 4］ Tablet “Kikaku-tei” (present)292

Process of inheritance1936 (completion)

Hiroshi Tanaka↓
1958
Keifuku Electric Railroad Co., Ltd.
↓
1991
Hiei Sangyō Co., Ltd.
↓2005 to 2017 (present) Muryōjusan Kōmyō-ji
Location

Kyoto, Kyoto - #49

Completion

September 1936

Architect

Shimizu-gumi

Structure

Wood, two stories

Main Purpose

Residence → Recreation facility → Japanese-style restaurant andhotel → Facility owned by a temple

Plot Area

1220 tsubo (4033 sq. m)

Floor Area

217 tsubo (716 sq. m)

Public Access

Open to the public for a limited period

From a secondary house in Yase, to a recreational facility and a Japanesestyle restaurant and hotel
Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence is a modern Japanese-style house
located in the south section of the Yase District, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto, which lieson the west side of Mount Hiei (Fig. 1, 2). Hiroshi Tanaka (1866-1957) was amanager of the power company Kyoto Dentō. He contributed to theoperation of the present Keifuku Arashiyama Line and the Eizan Cable Car, as
well as the merger to found the railroad company Keifuku Electric Railroad.
After being the president of Kyoto Dentō, he served as the president of
Miyako Hotel. Construction of the secondary residence was necessitated byflooding in Kansai area in June of 1935, as Tanaka’s house along the TakanoRiver was washed away. He purchased the higher plot on the south side of
the original plot, combined them, and built the new secondary house.
Because of this expansion, Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence boasts a
wonderful layout, utilizing the natural slope and the picturesque scenery at
the skirt of the mountain (Fig. 3).

293

Tanaka originally intended to live at his secondary house in Yase after hisretirement from his position of president of Kyoto Dentō. However, due tothe worsening course of the war and rising inflation, his residency wasdelayed while he was occupied with his duties as president of Miyako Hotel.
At one point the intention was to use the building as a Japanese-style
hotel, although the details of this venture are unclear. The hotel was
supposed to be operated by Tanaka’s wife, and was meant to be called
Kikaku-tei, after Sanetomi Sanjō’s hand drawn tablet, which still exists in thebuilding (Fig. 4). After Tanaka’s death in 1957, ownership of the secondary
house was transferred to Keifuku Electric Railroad. As part of the tourism
business of the company, the building was operated as the hot spring hotel
Yase kamaburo onsen Kikaku-tei. In 1991, ownership was transferred toanother company, Hiei Sangyō, but the building was kept in the same form
and used as a Japanese-style restaurant and hotel, called Kikaku-tei. The
restaurant and hotel closed in 2005, but the building began its next
reincarnation in 2006 as the temple Muryōjusan Kōmyō-ji Ruri-kōin.

House with the slope and the great view at the skirt of Mount Hiei
The plot includes hiramon (gate with two columns and a shallow roof) on
the north street along the Takano River. Shita-no-dan (present Shimo-yashiki)
is a single-story wooden building on the lower part of the plot on the north,and Ue-no-dan (present main building) is a two-storied wooden building on
the higher part of the plot on the south. These two buildings are aligned
diagonally and connected by a corridor with an observatory (Fig. 5-7).

［Fig. 5］ Original west elevation: the two-storied building on the right is Ue-no-dan,and the single-story building on the left is Shita-no-dan. The corridor of the
kakezukuri structure (supported by long columns and crosspieces) is built on theslope and connects these two buildings.

294

［Fig. 6］ Original floor plan

［Fig. 7］ Layout of Ruri-kōen (present)295

Ue-no-dan is mainly composed of unfinished square columns and nageshi(vertical timber connecting columns) made of tsuga tree (Southern Japanese
hemlock). On the southwest corner of the first floor, there are two tentatami-mat connected rooms with han-irigawaen (semi-internal Japanesestyle veranda), which were used as living rooms. Looking through single pane
glass windows, the rooms border a tidy moss garden backed by woods andmountains. This part of the building has two levels, and the guest rooms areon the second floor. Because their engawa (Japanese-style veranda) run in
the same direction, these two ten-tatami-mat rooms offer a stunningpanoramic view of nature throughout the seasons (Fig. 8, 9). On thenorthwest corner of the first floor, there were two Western-style rooms: astudy with large glass windows, and a reception room. These rooms are now
used as Buddhist altar rooms.
The Shimo-no-dan is supported by cedar menkawa-bashira (columns withremaining bark on the corner) without any nageshi. There is a guest roomwith eight tatami mats, equipped with toko-no-ma (decorative alcove) and atabletop in the tsuke-shoin (built-in table) style. From this room, a garden
can be seen beyond engawa, both to the south and to the north (Fig. 10, 11).
In the south garden, a waterfall created by the slope of the plot feeds a large
pond. The 4.5-tatami-mat teahouse located west of the guest room is also
accessible from the south garden. To the north of the teahouse, there is aWestern-style reception room with herringbone pattern floor panels and afireplace with a tiled surround (Fig. 14). The mountains surrounding Yase andthe Takano River are visible from expansive windows on the waist high walls
at the northwest corner of the building.
The basic composition of Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence is asfollows: the Japanese-style rooms open to a garden, with woods andmountains beyond to the southwest; and the Western-style room overlooks
the Takano River to the northwest. The two buildings on different levels aredesigned in two different styles, and connected by the corridor, and in thisway the sukiya architecture includes a variety of colorful gardens andarchitectural compositions.

［Fig. 9］ Ten-tatami-mat guest
room on the second floor of Ueno-dan (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)［Fig. 8］ Ten-tatami-mat guest
room on the second floor of Ueno-dan (present)296

［Fig. 10］ Eight-tatami-mat guest
room of Shita-no-dan (present)［Fig. 11］ South engawa of Shitano-dan (present)［Fig. 13］ North façade of Shitano-dan from the south garden(photo taken just after completion,from the Catalog)［Fig. 12］ North façade of Shitano-dan from the south garden(present)

Architect Shirō Funakoshi and carpenter Sotoji Nakamura
Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence was designed by Shirō Funakoshi,
who was at the time of construction the top architect for sukiya stylearchitecture in Shimizu-gumi. It has been established that the buildings werebuilt by Sotoji Nakamura, a carpenter who was working with Shimizu-gumi
and moved to Kyoto just before this project. From 1931, Nakamura was a
subcontractor of Shimizu-gumi and built many structures designed byarchitects Hiroshi Ōtomo and Shirō Funakoshi from the company’s design
division. Funakoshi graduated from Waseda Kousyu School and entered
Shimizu-gumi in 1916. Built in 1931, Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary House was
Funakoshi’s first project with Nakamura. Among the buildings built by Sotoji
Nakamura, twelve buildings, mainly houses and Japanese-style
hotels/restaurants, were designed by Shirō Funakoshi.

297

Present-day Shimizu Corporation holds the design drawings entitled“Hiroshi Tanaka Residence (Yase Secondary Residence)”, which reveal that
Funakoshi was a specialist of sukiya-style architecture. More than ninety
percent of these drawings carry the nameseal of “Funakoshi”, evidence that
Funakoshi was the architect mainly in charge of the project. The drawings
with only Funakoshi’s nameseal must have been drawn by his hand. These
particular drawings illustrate some critical aspects of the design: thedimensional drawing of column layout and the sectional detail drawings areimportant for structure design; and the full-size drawings of the entrance andthe guest room are important for architectural design. Funakoshi added
other full-size drawings and clarified some finer details of his design, such as
the arrangement of the bamboo on a bamboo screen and the metal fixturesto hang said screen.
Strong reasons to be inherited
As stated above, Hiroshi Tanaka Secondary Residence has been converted
from a residence to a hot spring hotel, then a hotel with restaurant, andmost recently a facility of a temple. Yet through these various changes in use
the present building remains almost in its original form. What are thereasons behind the inheritance of this building in its near-original state? The
two buildings with different elevations have both a Japanese-style room anda Western-style room, and this layout created the versatility of this residence.
In addition, it is evident that each successive owner has managed thebuildings well. Thus, design and ownership are significant factors, yet there
must also be other reasons why the architecture has been preserved. The
character of the plot at the skirt of Mount Hiei is utilized for optimalcomposition of buildings and gardens. The architectural design brings thegardens and the stunning views into the interiors. Additionally, the dedicatedefforts of Shirō Funakoshi and Sotoji Nakamura oversaw the construction ofhigh quality buildings through excellent materials and techniques. Together,
these factors must account for the ongoing appeal of the buildings and thestrong incentive of people to save them.
［Fig. 14］ Reception room of Shitano-dan (photo taken just after
completion, from the Catalog)

298

【References】
1. Hiroshi Tanaka, Kyoto zaikai hanseiki: Tanaka Hiroshi ōyawa [Half century of thebusiness circle in Kyoto: analects of Hiroshi Tanaka], Tanaka ōyawa kankōkai, 1952
2. Keifuku Denki Tetsudō shashi hensan jimukyoku, Keifuku Denki Tetsudō 50 nen no
ayumi [Fifty years of Keifuku Electric Railroad], Keifuku Denki Tetsudō, 1993
3. Sotoji Nakamura et al., Shōgi: daiku Nakamura Sotoji no shigoto [master craftmanship:
works of the carpenter Sotoji Nakamura], Seigensha, 1996
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 4, 8, 10-12: Photographs taken by the Committee
Fig. 2, 6, 9, 13, 14: Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture
catalog], vol.2, 1939
Fig. 3, 5:
Courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Fig. 7:
Courtesy of Ruri-kōin299

Tips to Preserve Buildings IV

Kyoto City’s Strategy to Inherit Kyō-machiya
Various systems for protection and inheritance
In Japan, Kyoto City is one of the cities with the most advanced andinnovative strategy for enabling the inheritance of historical buildings. The
strategy is not limited to the administrative framework for cultural properties,
but also is applied to various city policies, such as landscape policy, urban
planning, and architectural policy. Therefore, the strategy provides
comprehensive and mutually complementary support for inheritance ofhistorical buildings, especially for kyō-machiya (Kyoto-style wooden
townhouses). To address the critical situation wherein eight hundred kyōmachiya buildings are being demolished every year, many ordinances andplans have been established and expanded to enable the inheritance of
these buildings.
In addition to designation and registration of cultural properties, the city
policy includes the following systems. These systems outline the process ofdesignation of individual historical buildings, including kyō-machiya, andtheir clusters, as well as measures such as subsidies to allow for the
management and support of these buildings.
■Systems for an individual building (legal grounds such as laws, ordinances,and systems are between parentheses):- Kobetsu shitei kyō-machiya [Designation of individual kyō-machiya] (Kyoto
City Ordinance for Protection and Inheritance of kyō-machiya)- Keikan jūyō kenzōbutsu [Structures of landscape importance] (LandscapeAct)- Rekishi-teki ishō kenzōbutsu [Building with historic design] (Kyoto City
Ordinance for Cityscape Management)- Kaiwai keikan kenzōbutsu [Building contributing to the cityscape of theneighborhood] inside the Kaiwai keikan seibi chiku [District to manage thecityscape of the neighborhood] (Kyoto City Ordinance for CityscapeManagement)- Rekishi-teki fūchi keisei kenzōbutsu [Building creating traditional scenery](Act on Maintenance and Improvement of Traditional Scenery in Certain
Districts)

300

- Dentō-teki kenzōbutsu [historic building] inside the Dentō-tekikenzōbutsu-gun hozon chiku [Preservation district for groups of historicbuildings] (Act on Protection of Cultural Properties)- Selection and certification as Kyoto wo irodoru tatemono ya teien[Decorative buildings and gardens in Kyoto] (System for Decorative
Buildings and Gardens in Kyoto)■Systems for a district- Kyō-machiya hozen keishō chiku [District for protection and inheritance ofkyō-machiya] (Kyoto City Ordinance for Protection and Inheritance of Kyōmachiya)- Rekishi-teki keikan hozen shūkei chiku [District for protection andbeautification of historic landscape] (Kyoto City Ordinance for CityscapeManagement)- Kaiwai keikan seibi chiku [District to manage the cityscape of theneighborhood] (Kyoto City Ordinance for Cityscape Management)- Dentō-teki kenzōbutsu-gun hozon chiku [Preservation district for groups ofhistoric buildings] (Act on Protection of Cultural Properties)
WIth the exception of systems based on the Kyoto City Ordinance forProtection and Inheritance of Kyō-machiya (hereafter, Kyō-machiya
Ordinance), these systems relate to historic buildings in general, but many ofthe designated buildings at present fall into the category of kyō-machiya.
Each system defines the details of the restrictions, and the eligible elementsof the building and the maximum amount of each subsidy for maintenance,
repair, and beautification. It is also possible for a building to be designatedunder multiple systems. Many options are prepared to encompass buildings
with different circumstances and owners with differing intentions.
While designation of cultural properties has been used mainly for shrines
and temples, kyō-machiya have been the primary focus of other designation
systems established within the last fifteen years. Kyō-machiya symbolizes theculture and lifestyle of Kyoto, and represents the typical cityscape of Kyoto.
Therefore, the protection and inheritance of kyō-machiya is an urgent andimportant challenge for the city.

301

Enactment of the Kyō-machiya OrdinanceThe city expressed its twofold intention to protect and enable inheritancein the Kyō-machiya Ordinance enacted in 2017. The future of kyō-machiya ishighly uncertain. Due to the recent increase of tourists, more kyō-machiya
were demolished for construction of new accommodations. The enactmentof the ordinance was supported by the earnest desire to minimize thenumber of kyō-machiya being demolished. The ordinance was based on thefollowing pillars: providing ample subsidies for maintenance and repair;
provision of information related to protection and inheritance; suggestions
related to utilizing kyō-machiya; matching an owner with potential tenants;
improving the consultation system; supporting machizukuri (neighborhood
planning) around kyō-machiya; enacting a designation system; following a
protocol for reporting prior to demolition.
Kobetsu shitei kyō-machiya (Designation of individual kyō-machiya) andKyō-machiya hozen keishō chiku (District for protection and inheritance ofkyō-machiya) are unprecedented systems based on the Kyō-machiya
Ordinance, in the way that kyō-machiya can be designated without theowner’s consent. The aim of these systems is to notify the owner that theirproperty is kyō-machiya and to impress upon them the need to understandthe value of the building and the importance of inheriting it. Once each kyōmachiya is designated, support and subsidies for the building will increase,
while at the same time, any plan to demolish the building must be reported
one year in advance, to act as a restriction on demolition. The city intends tobe alerted to potential demolition, to provide adequate consultation andsupport to sustain the building, and ultimately to stop the demolition. As of
March 2020, 633 buildings are designated as individual kyō-machiya, and 10
districts are designated as a district for protection and inheritance of kyōmachiya. Protection of kyō-machiya is a race against time, and thus as manykyō-machiya as possible should be designated as soon as possible.

［Fig. 1,2］ Kōyaku no zushi path (Shin-kamanza cho, Shimogyō, Kyoto)

302

Role of the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration
Many of the projects related to kyō-machiya are conducted by an
auxiliary organization of the city, the Kyoto Center for Community
Collaboration (hereafter, KCCC). The organization’s kyō-machiya projects
include: comprehensive consultation about kyō-machiya; creation of abuilding survey report; management of a database of kyō-machiya;
disbursement of a repair subsidy from the Kyō-machiya Machizukuri Fundand the Kyō-machiya Machizukuri Crowdfund; and creation of Kyō-machiya
Karute (kyō-machiya record) and Kyō-machiya Profile for each building.
Additionally, KCCC operates the Kyō-machiya Legacy Network, a network ofother organizations related to the inheritance of kyō-machiya, such as realestate agencies, financial institutions, legal experts, and municipalities. The
network provides a wide range of support for inheriting kyō-machiya, such as
various consultations with experts from the organizations, and a matching
project known as MATCH YA. The recent process of protection andinheritance of kyō-machiya has been proceeding through cooperation andcollaboration among municipalities and auxiliary organizations.

Kyō-machiya record and kyō-machiya mortgage
KCCC provides two types of summary reports on kyō-machiya, acting
upon requests from owners: Kyō-machiya Record and Kyō-machiya Profile.
The Kyō-machiya Record includes the history of the building, its unique
attributes, current condition, and floor plan. The Kyō-machiya Profile
primarily details information relating to the external appearance of thebuilding. The reports are beneficial for both owners and the KCCC. The
owner can obtain documentation of an objective evaluation of their building,and the KCCC can gain access to kyō-machiya to document their current
status.
Additionally, the Kyō-machiya Record is also required by the three banks
in Kyoto which offer mortgages for kyō-machiya. In some cases, these banks
lend money for existing disqualified buildings that do not meet the current
regulations of the Building Standards Act. The Kyō-machiya Record must be
submitted as part of the mortgage examination process, in order to establish
the current condition of the building. As kyō-machiya is usually categorized
as an existing disqualified building, this mortgage financing process, which is
unique to Kyoto, works as a critical tool to support their inheritance.

303

Comprehensive acceptable standards for exemption from the BuildingStandard Act
In April 2012, the city enacted Kyoto City Ordinance for Preservation andUtilization of Traditional Wooden Buildings, an ordinance to exempt
buildings of historic value from the Building Standard Act. In addition, in
November 2013, the Kyoto City Ordinance for Preservation and Utilization ofHistoric Buildings was enacted to expand the ordinance to include nonwooden buildings. In order to simplify the legal process, the ordinances
outlined hōkatsu dōi kijun (comprehensive acceptable standards) for astandard kyō-machiya. If owners follow these standards, they are permitted
to make certain modifications to the kyō-machiya after a single examinationby the building review council. These ordinances are intended to encourage
the inheritance of kyō-machiya.
The movement to protect and sustain kyō-machiya began as a private
initiative approximately 30 years ago. The movement became a major
influence on and component of the city policies detailed above. There arestill many obstacles on the path to securing the protection of kyō-machiya
and their role in the cityscape, but the city will continue to meet thesechallenges as part of its effort to pass on the culture and lifestyle of Kyoto to
future generations.
(Setsuko Nakajima)［Fig. 3］ Kyō-machiya during the
Yamaboko Junkō parade of the Gion
Festival (Rokkakucho, Nakagyō,
Kyoto)［Fig. 4］ Cityscape of Honeyacho,
Nakagyō, Kyoto【Sources】
Fig. 1, 2, 4: Photographs taken by the author
Fig. 3:
Photograph taken by Hiroshi Kyōgoku

304

305

5-7

Suekichi Kanazawa House

A house showing the importance of family bonds
Seizō Uchida［Fig. 1］ North façade (present)［Fig. 2］ North façade (photo taken
just after completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 4］ Guest room on thesecond floor (photo taken justafter completion, from theCatalog)［Fig. 3］ Guest room on the second floor(present)306

［Fig. 5］ Atelier on the first floor (present)

Process of inheritance1930 (completion)

Suekichi Kanazawa↓ Inheritance
Tsuneji Kanazawa↓ InheritanceFumiko Kanazawa↓ Inheritance
Masakata Kanazawa

2019 (present)
Location

Bunkyō, Tokyo - #13

Completion

1930

Architect

Tsuneji Kanazawa

Structure

Wood, two stories

Floor Area

100 tsubo (330 sq. m)

Main Purpose

House → House

Cultural Property
Designation
Public Access

National Registered Tangible Cultural Property
Private property (Visits are not permitted)

307

Beginning of construction on the house
Nishikata-machi, Bunkyō, Tokyo, is a modern town settled in the Meiji era
and known as gakusha machi (scholar’s town). The area used to be thenakayashiki (second residence) of the Abe family, feudal lord of the former
Bingo-Fukuyama Domain. After the Meiji period, the main residence of theAbe family was found here. The University of Tokyo was established in 1877
in the Hongo area adjacent to Nishikata, with government schools for various
disciplines centralized on the Hongo campus. Scholar’s town was founded in
response to the increase of professors and students in the area, as the Abe
family used part of their land to establish houses and plots for rent, andbegan a real estate business around 1887. The Kanazawa family started tolive in Nishikata-machi around 1882. Suekichi Kanazawa and his family werelikely some of the first residents to build a house on land rented from theAbe family.
According to Jinji kōshinroku (People’s directory) 1941 edition, Suekichi
Kanazawa was born in 1865 and was the fourth son of Rinpei Kanazawa in
Gifu Prefecture. He was adopted by his eldest brother Renkichi Kanazawa
and succeeded him as head of the family in 1983.1 In 1878, he entered the
publishing and trading company Maruzen, working at its Yokohama andOsaka branches. Suekichi became director of the company in 1907, was later
promoted to vice president, and ultimately served as company president
from 1937. It is remarkable that Suekichi Kanazawa commissioned this housewhen he was just 17 years old. He started working at Maruzen around age 13,
and he must have been a seasoned employee before he reached adulthood.
Renkichi Kanazawa, born in 1847, was the first son of Rinpei Kanazawa.
Renkichi played important roles during the early years of Maruzen. He
passed away in 1882 due to illness, but his younger brother Ikichi and his
adoptive son/brother Suekichi continued to work at Maruzen.2 There clearly
was a strong relationship between the Kanazawa family and Maruzen.
Maruzen played a significant role in the introduction of various European
cultures at the time, therefore it is reasonable to state that employees of thecompany would have had a keen interest in these cultures. Renkichi possibly
asked Suekichi to live near the University of Tokyo. The university was thecenter of knowledge during the new period of industrialization andWesternization in Japan, and Suekichi may have built his house in Nishikatamachi in order to be near this influential center.

308

Space for the family on the south side of the building
The current building on the plot is a two-storied wooden building built in
1930, with battened clapboard exterior walls. The front gate suggests a
standard traditional Japanese-style house, but the atelier with its large
window facing the front street must have created a striking modern
impression for a house at that time. The roof of the atelier was anothermodern element. The steep gable roof was covered with French-style roofing
tiles, and the gable has a corbelled decoration (Fig. 1, 2).
This building was designed by Suekichi’s second son, Tsuneji Kanazawa.
According to the previously mentioned Jinji kōshinroku, Tsuneji was profiled
as follows: “born in March 1900; Ju Shichii (Junior Seventh Rank of theJapanese court rank); army lieutenant; assistant professor of the Tokyo Fine
Arts School; and alumni of the department of architecture of the school.” Hegraduated from the school in 1924. In May of 1923, The Tokyo Fine Arts
School had renamed the second division of the department of design as thedepartment of architecture, and Tsuneji was one of the new department’s
first graduates. After graduation, he remained at the Tokyo Fine Arts Schoolas an assistant professor in the fields of architecture, drawing, and design
until 1944. He is known for two notable building designs during his tenure at
the school. He designed the Japanese-style Rokkaku-dō (hexagonal hut) to
enclose a statue of Tenshin Okakura, built in 1931. He also designed theMasaki Memorial Gallery, one of his significant works of traditional Japanese
castle style design and reinforced concrete structure, built in 1935.
The house Tsuneji Kanazawa designed for his father sits on an oddly
shaped plot, and is longest in the north-south direction. The main gate is off
a street to the north, with the building close to the street. Part of thebuilding extends to the east, to create an annex. The building is pushed to
the north and the east of the plot, to secure as large a space as possible for agarden on the south part of the plot. The house was initially planned as a
two generation house for Suekichi and his wife, and Tsuneji and his wife. The
annex to the east has two Japanese-style rooms, which were intended as
space for Tsuneji and his wife. The atelier was also designed by Tsuneji for his
own use (Fig. 5). As an architect, Tsuneji could design his house to reflect his
intentions exactly.
The first floor of the entire house was designed for the residents, while
the second floor was intended for guests. Other than the reception roomnext to the entrance, most of the first floor rooms are designed for dailyfamily living. In contrast, the second floor has two Japanese-style rooms forguests and two Western-style rooms (Fig. 3, 4). The overall house design
exhibits clear spatial zoning.

309

The layout of the plot highlights the garden, and some elements of thebuilding reflect its importance. Engawa (Japanese-style veranda) is attachedto the family rooms on the south edge of the first floor, and also to the main
Japanese-room on the second floor. The first floor engawa leads to thegarden. The annex is built to jut out into the garden, with engawa on its two
sides.
The floor plan of the house is another unique feature. The alignment of
the main part of the house is very peculiar, which enables an interesting
floor plan. The area around the entrance appears quite ordinary. Stairs fromthe earthen floor entrance hall lead to the second floor. The reception roomand the atelier face north to the frontal road. As there is a corridor in the
middle of the building from the entrance hall, this house can be categorized
as a middle-corridor-type house, which was popular at that time. However,
the rest of the house is interesting. The family space on the first floor, theguest space on the second floor, and the middle corridor are all rotated to
face the south side. Reportedly, this alignment is based on a divination of the
auspices of the house. Obviously, rotating part of a building makes it difficult
to handle spatial layout, and causes various issues for design andconstruction. As an architect he would have been aware of thesecomplicated issues, yet Tsuneji Kanazawa chose this floor plan for the house.
This choice indicates that he prioritized the living environment of his family
by turning the rooms to face south. He sought to design “the ultimate housefor a family” in the modern age (Fig. 6).

［Fig. 6］ Floor plan (simplified)310

Collection of artworks in the Japanese-style rooms
The interior design of the house is characterized by artworks scatteredthroughout the two Japanese-style rooms on the second floor. The works
were created by artists Tsuneji had met at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. It is
not known who created the ranma (transom window) with a bird motif andthe fusuma-e (painting on paper sliding doors), but these are believed to beworks of famous artists (Fig. 7, 8). The handle of the paper sliding door wasprobably created by the Living National Treasure artist Masahiko Katori (Fig.
9). Katori was a metal artist who graduated from Tokyo Fine Art School in
1925, one year after Tsuneji, and it is likely that they knew each other.
Further details of these artworks have yet to be confirmed, but theJapanese-style rooms are filled with works by Tsuneji’s school friends. Rooms
like these filled with artwork might have been a reflection of the initiative forcomprehensive art under the influence of the Kōgei (craft) movement, whichprevailed at the end of the Taisho period.
This house is especially interesting. Despite minor expansions andmodifications for residents’ lifestyle, it has basically retained its original form,
and therefore should be categorized as a precious historic building. The
architect Tsuneji Kanazawa proposed the very unique floor plan by partiallychanging the direction of the rooms for his family to face south. A familycentered floor plan such as this was a reflection of typical modern design, as
it embraced the Seikatsu kaizen (improvement of lifestyle) movement of the
Taisho period and the scientific architectural planning theory of the late
Taisho period.

［Fig. 7］ Shoin ranma (transom
window above a desk space) in theguest room on the second floor(present)［Fig. 8］ Ita ranma (transom window
made of wooden panel) in the guest
room on the second floor (present)311

［Fig. 9-1］ Handle of the sliding
door in the guest room on thesecond floor (present)［Fig. 9-2］ Handle of the sliding
door in the guest room on thesecond floor (present)【Notes】
1. The Jinji kōshinroku includes the following details about Suekichi Kanazawa: he was“the president of Maruzen” and was “born at the beginning of 1865, as the fourth sonof Rinpei Kanazawa, a former samurai in Gifu Prefecture, adopted by Renkichi Kanzawa,and succeeded him as the head of the family in 1883. In 1878, he entered Maruzen,
and worked at its Yokohama branch and Osaka branch, became a director of thecompany in 1907, promoted to its vice president, and then its president in 1937.”
However, Taishū jinjiroku (Personal record of the public) published in 1939 states that
Suekichi was “a director of Maruzen”, “the fourth son of Rinpei, a former samurai in
Gifu Prefecture”, “born on January 11th, 1865”, and “adopted by Renkichi Kanazawa”. It
also states that he “entered the company in 1881, served as a branch manager inOsaka and Yokohama, and got promoted to the current position in 1907.”
2. Maruzen Hyakunen-shi [100 years of Maruzen], Maruzen Publishing, 1980
【Sources】
Fig. 1, 3, 5, 7-9: Photographs taken by the Committee (May 2017 and May 2019)
Fig. 2, 4:
Shimizu-gumi, Jūtaku kenchiku zushū [Residential architecture catalog],
vol. 1, 1935
Fig. 6:Created by the Committee

312Chapter 6
Legal Systems for Historical Houses

313

6-1

Comparison of Legal Systems
Applied to Historical Houses
Supervised by Osamu Gotō

Name of The National Treasure
Legal System［Kokuhō］(Structure)

Important Cultural
Property ［Jūｙō Bunkazai］(Structure)

Enacted YearAct for the Preservation of Old Temples and Shrines:
1897
Act for the Preservation of National Treasures: 1926
Act for the Protection of Cultural Properties: 1950

Legal Grounds

Paragraph (2), Article 27,
Act for the Protection ofCultural Properties:
A National Treasure is "anobject that is valuablefrom the perspective ofworld culture and shouldbe treated as an
outstanding treasure of
the nation" among "theImportant Cultural
Properties."

Paragraph (1), Article 27,
Act for the Protection ofCultural Properties:"Minister of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology may designate
an important object among
the Tangible Cultural
Properties as an Important
Cultural Property."
Paragraph (1), Article 2, Act
for the Protection ofCultural Properties:
A Tangible Cultural Property
is "a tangible cultural
product that is historicallyor artistically valuable forour country."

Authorizing Body

National government

National government

Designation orRegistration

Designation

Designation

Number of Cases

227 properties(290 structures, as ofDecember 2019)

2,503 properties(5,083 structures, as ofDecember 2019)

Tax Benefits(Fixed property
tax, Inheritancetax)

Fixed property tax: Tax free (house, land)
Inheritance tax: Appraised value is reduced by 70%.
314

Subsidies for
Repair(Major repairs
only)

The national government subsidizes 50% of repair costs
for restoration.
[Kankō kyoten seibi jigyō (tourist site development
project)]- Bikan kōjō seibi jigyō (aesthetic improvement project):
The national government subsidizes 50% of repair costs
for a part related to the appearance or finish of the area
open to the public.
- Katsuyō kankyō kyōka jigyō (Utilizing environment
development project): The national government
subsidizes 50% of planning costs for preservation andutilization, the construction cost, and the equipment
installation cost, if these costs are incurred to utilize theproperty and open it to the public.

Restric
tionandPenalty

ModificationPermission from the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs is
required.

Open
to thePublicThe Commissioner for Cultural Affairs recommends
opening the property to the public.

Penalty

Criminal penalty, administrative penalty

315

Name of The Designated Tangible
Legal System

Cultural Property［Shitei Yūkei Bunkazai］(Structure)

Registered Tangible
Cultural Property［Tōroku Yūkei Bunkazai］(Structure)

Enacted Year

1975

1996

Legal Grounds

Paragraph (2), Article 182,
Act for the Protection ofCultural Properties:
Municipalities can"designate culturalproperties in theirterritory that areimportant but not theImportant Cultural
Properties" or properties
designated under othernational systems.

Article 57, Act for theProtection of Cultural
Properties:"Where a tangible culturalproperty, except for the
Important Cultural
Properties and the tangible
cultural properties
designated bymunicipalities underParagraph (2), Article 182,
especially requires somemeasures for preservation
and utilization, Minister of
Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology
may register a culturalproperty on the culturalproperty registry based on
the value of the culturalproperty."

Authorizing Body

Prefecture or municipality

National government

Designation orRegistration

Designation

Registration

Number of Cases

12,169 properties(as of May 2019)12,443 properties(as of January 2020)

Tax Benefits(Fixed property
tax, Inheritancetax)

Fixed property tax:
Different for eachmunicipality

Fixed property tax: Reduced
by 50% for a house
Inheritance tax: Appraisal
value is reduced by 30%.

316

Subsidies for
Repair(Major repairs
only)

Different for eachmunicipality

The national government
subsidizes 50% of designand supervision costs ofrepairs needed forrestoration and utilization.
[Kankō kyoten seibi jigyō(tourist site development
project)]- Bikan kōjō seibi jigyō(aesthetic improvement
project): The national
government subsidizes 50%
of repair costs for a part
related to the appearance
or finish of the area open
to the public.
- Katsuyō kankyō kyōka
jigyō (Utilizing environment
development project): The
national government
subsidizes 50% of planningcosts for preservation andutilization, the construction
cost, and the equipment
installation cost, if thesecosts are incurred to utilize
the property and open it to
the public.

Restric
tionandPenalty

ModificationPermission from thesuperintendent ofeducation is required.
(different for eachmunicipality)

An application to theCommissioner for Cultural
Affairs is required.

Open
to thePublicDifferent for eachmunicipality

The Commissioner for
Cultural Affairs provides
guidance and advice to theowner or managing
organization for opening itto the public.

Penalty

Administrative penalty(different for eachmunicipality)

Administrative penalty

317

Historic Buildings in the
Preservation District forGroups of Important
Historic Buildings[Jūyō Dentōteki
Kenzōbutsu-gun
Hozon Chiku no
Dentōteki Kenzōbutsu]

Structures of LandscapeImportance[Keikan Jūyō Kenzōbutsu]

Enacted Year

1975

2004

Legal Grounds

Article 144, Act on
Protection of Cultural
Properties:"Where the entire
territory, or a part of theterritory, of a Preservation
District for Groups ofHistoric Buildings is
especially valuable for thecountry, Minister of
Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology
may select the area as a
Preservation District forGroups of Important
Historic Buildings basedon an application from amunicipality,

Paragraph (1), Article 19,
Landscape Act:
"The head of a Landscape
Administration Body may
designate a structure(including land and otherobjects forming a single
good landscape together
with the structure; thesame shall apply
hereinafter in this Section)that is important for theformation of a goodlandscape in a LandscapePlanning Area and thatsatisfies the criteria
specified by Ordinance ofthe Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport,
and Tourism as a structureof landscape importance, in
accordance with the policy
for the designation of
structures of landscapeimportance that has been
specified in a LandscapePlan (referred to inparagraph (3) of thefollowing Article as the"Designation Policy")."1

Name of The
Legal System

318

Paragraph (3), Article 19,
Landscape Act:
"The provisions ofparagraph (1) shall not
apply to a structure that has
been designated orprovisionally designated asa National Treasure; an
Important Cultural
Property; a Natural
Monument of Special
Historic Site and Special
Place of Scenic Beauty; or a
Natural Monument ofHistoric Site and Place of
Scenic Beauty (...)."1
Authorizing Body

Municipality

Landscape administrationbody(prefecture, municipality)

Designation orRegistration

Designation(Selected by the national
government)

Designation

Number of Cases

120 districts(as of December 2019)615 structures(as of May 2019)

Tax Benefits(Fixed property
tax, Inheritancetax)

Fixed property tax: Tax
free for a house; Reducedby each municipality up to
50% for land.
Inheritance tax: Appraisal
value is reduced by 30%.

Inheritance tax: Appraisal
value is reduced by 30%.

Subsidies for
Repair(Major ones
only)

Each municipality
provides a certain
financial support for the
repair cost required forpreservation, and the half
amount of the financial
support is covered by thenational government.

Different for eachmunicipality

319

Restriction
andPenalty

ModificationA permission from thesuperintendent ofeducation is required.

Permission from the headof a Landscape
Administration Body isrequired. (This restriction
shall not apply to thefollowing actions: an action
conducted for routine
management; a minor
action, any other action
specified by Cabinet Order;
and an action that is taken
as a necessary emergency
measure in the event of an
extraordinary disaster.)1Open
to thePublicNo restriction is enforced.

No restriction is enforced.

Penalty

Administrative penalty

Administrative penalty【Source:】
1. “Landscape Act,” Japanese Law Translation, accessed March 3, 2021,
http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=2533.

320

6-2

Systems for Inheriting Houses

Trend of the Registered Cultural Property system and municipalities
Asae Ozawa
For inheritance of historical buildings
How can we sustain historical buildings? This is the challenge thatarchitectural historians always have to face. Old buildings tend to have moreissues: lack of residents due to changes in the family and the family business;deterioration of the building; maintenance costs; inheritance of theproperty; and transfer of ownership.
There is no single solution to these issues, but there are two principles tofollow: to publicize the existence, value, and attraction of each historicalbuilding; and to continue using the building. Recently, the Japanese
government and municipalities have created various measures to help with
the issues listed above. This article reviews the current status of theseadministrative support systems.
The Registered Cultural Property system and its current status
The foremost system to publicize the value of historical buildings is thenational Registered Cultural Property system. The Registered Cultural
Property system was established in 1996 to consolidate a wide range of
information on the subject of protection, while the national designation
system of cultural properties, such as the National Treasure system and theImportant Cultural Property system, aims to select valuable and excellent
buildings, carefully protect these buildings, and ultimately turn over thebuildings to future generations in near-original condition. The word
Registered entails that the cultural property is registered in the registry of
the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and this registry is disclosed to thoroughly
publicize them as subjects of protection. As long as the building is older thanfifty years, various types of buildings from a wide range of construction years
are eligible for registration. Compared with the conventional designation
system, the registration system incorporates fewer restrictions and more
support.

321For example, modification of Designated Cultural Properties is restricted
in order to sustain their current condition. Also, there are generous financial
supports for designated properties, such as various tax benefits. Land valuetax, tax on income from transfer of a land and a building, and fixed property
taxes are all free, and inheritance tax is reduced by seventy per cent. When adesignated property is repaired, fifty to eighty percent of the repair cost iscovered either by the Japanese government, or by the prefecture ormunicipality where the property is located. In contrast, Registered Cultural
Properties are subject to lighter restrictions, and the ideal outcome is tocontinue using the property. Permission from the Agency for Cultural Affairs
is not necessary for some modifications to the property, as long as they arereported to the agency. The tax benefit for Registered Cultural Properties isonly a fifty per cent reduction to the fixed property tax for each building.
Land taxes tend to be the heaviest tax burden, yet there is no land tax
exemption, nor any support for repair costs.
However, a measure for the reduction of inheritance tax on Registered
Cultural Properties was introduced in 2004. The thirty per cent reduction ofappraisal value of the property and the land it occupies makes a huge
difference in relieving the tax burden on owners. The inheritance tax
reduction plays a crucial role in the preservation of personal houses.
The number of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties continues toincrease by approximately 550 properties a year, and as of January 2020 it
has exceeded 12,400 properties. Designated Cultural properties are selectedby the government or prefectures, yet applications for Registered Cultural
Properties are submitted by owners or based on recommendations fromprefectures or municipalities. Therefore, the increase of Registered Cultural
Properties indicates growing recognition of the system and increasingawareness among owners. This growth is especially strong in the prefecturesof Osaka, Nagano, Niigata, Aichi, and Kagawa, areas where the number ofRegistered Cultural Properties is clearly greater than the number of
Designated Cultural Properties. Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, and Nagasaki havecooperative associations of Registered Tangible Cultural Property owners, inwhich owners exchange information.
However, the lack of clear restrictions on demolition is identified as aweakness of the Registered Cultural Property system. Just as modification isallowed merely by submitting a report, demolition is also possible under thesame loose procedure. As of January 2020, 202 Registered Cultural
Properties have been lost due to reasons other than disaster. Nearly onethird of the lost properties are personal houses, which highlights thedifficulty in preserving this type of building.

322

Support measures for preservation and utilization in Kanagawa PrefectureThis section examines the current situation of the registration system in
Kanagawa Prefecture and complementary systems of municipalities within
the prefecture. There are 262 Registered Cultural Properties in theprefecture as of January 2020, with Hakone Town the municipality with themost registrations at forty two. In the case of each city, more than twenty
properties are registered in Yokohama City, Kamakura City, Fujisawa City, andOdawara City. One-third of municipalities, including twelve cities such as
Zama City and Yamato City, currently do not have any Registered Cultural
Properties.
Municipalities with many registrations are those promoting policies forhistorical landscapes. As part of such landscape policies, Yokohama City andKamakura City implemented original protection systems for historicalbuildings prior to the establishment of the national Registered Cultural
Property system and the enactment of the Landscape Act. Yokohama’s
Certified Historical Building system was created in 1988, and Kamakura’s
Building etc. of Landscape Importance system began in 1990. Yokohama’ssystem, which is explained in greater detail in a separate article (p.67),
provides generous support for certified buildings. For example, the city
provides up to 10 million yen for wooden structures and up to 60 million yen
for non-wooden structures to cover repair costs for preservation of
appearance and seismic retrofit.
In a further example of city-based initiatives, Odawara City and Kamakura
City submitted their Rekishiteki fūchi iji kōjō keikaku (plan for maintenanceand improvement of traditional scenery) to the Japanese government forcertification under the Act for the Maintenance and Improvement of
Traditional Scenery in Certain Districts. The Act, often called Rekishi
Machizukuri Hō (Act for community development based on history), wasestablished in 2008, and provides the foundation for a system enabling theJapanese government to support community development based on history
in a municipality. For the municipality to benefit from the Act, there must be
a National Important Cultural Property, a National Historic Site, or a
Preservation District for Groups of Important Historic Buildings located in themunicipality. Under its plan, Odawara City acquired a modern house, which
had been used as a secondary residence near the ruins of Odawara Castle, inorder to utilize the building. The city also collaborates with a local training
organization to train new craftspeople in traditional craftsmanship.

323

In April 2014, Fujisawa City enacted the Fujisawa Machinami xHyakunen
Jōrei (Fujisawa townscape 100 years ordinance). Under this ordinance, thecity designated certain historical areas as Machinami Keishō Chiku (Area forsustaining townscape), in order to promote long-term protection and repairof the landscape, as well as exploration of their charm as a tourist
destination. The historical Fujisawa-juku area along the former Tokaidō road,which is dotted with machiya (townhouse) and storehouses, was the firstarea designated under the ordinance in January 2015. The general system isunder the jurisdiction of the urban planning department of Fujisawa City, but
its cultural property department also cooperates on the project andencourages machiya owners in the area to apply for Registered Cultural
Property status. For historical buildings in the area, the city provides some
repair costs for preservation of appearance and seismic retrofit, as long as
the building is sustained for more than ten years. This financial support ismeant to offset the gaps in the Registered Cultural Property system.
Moreover, the City’s economic development department has a system tosupport restaurants and other businesses that promote local history andlocal culinary specialties. These businesses are eligible for financial support
for refurbishment costs and rent assistance for a two-year period. It is clear
how a variety of City departments work together to provide support for bothpreservation and utilization. In Fujisawa City, more than sixty percent of its
Registered Cultural Properties are either a personal house or a store. Someof these stores are no longer in operation, but there have been successful
restoration stories. Under the system, a former grain storehouse of a rice
dealer, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1886, was converted
to a bakery.
Systems to promote utilization
If a vacant house is converted to a shop or a restaurant, it may contravene
current laws or regulations. For example, in a traditional Japanese-stylebuilding, a general exterior wall exposing columns and a thatched roof do
not meet the current standard of fire protection and prevention. The widthof stairs and corridors also frequently fail to meet present regulations. In thecase of a complete renovation or a large building with the area of more than
200 square meters, the obligation to meet the Building Standards Act cannot
be overlooked.

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Article 3 paragraph 1 of the The Building Standards Act details exceptions
to application of the Act, including the exclusion of National Treasures andImportant Cultural Properties. However, to exclude municipal DesignatedCultural Properties, national Registered Cultural Properties, or Rekishitekifūchi keisei kenzōbutsu (buildings forming traditional scenery) in the Act on
Maintenance and Improvement of Traditional Scenery in Certain Districts,
each municipality must prescribe rules about restriction of modification andpreservation measures in an ordinance, and acquire consent from kenchiku
shinsa kai (building review board). This ordinance about exclusion is
generally called sonota jōrei (ordinance for excluding other culturalproperties). To sustain the original form of historical buildings and utilize
them, reliance on this ordinance has increased recently.
As of 2017, seven municipalities had enacted their own exclusion
ordinance, including Kawagoe City, Yokohama City, Kamakura City, and Kyoto
City. In March 2018, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism established a guideline Rekishiteki Kenchikubutsu no Katsuyō ni
Muketa Jōrei Seibi Gaidorain (guideline for creating an ordinance for
utilization of historical buildings), which encouraged more municipalities toenact their own exclusion ordinance.1 In the case of Fujisawa City, their
exclusion ordinance was officially announced in 2018, and it became possible
to exclude Registered Cultural Properties from application of the act. Somemunicipalities that recently established the ordinance include Tomioka Cityand Toyooka City. Other municipalities with recognized historical background,such as Odawara City, Ōiso City, and Imizu City, are considering establishing
the ordinance.
To convert vacant houses, it is necessary to create a system that connects
an owner and a tenant. Each municipality provides various measures toutilize vacant houses and promote restoration of houses. In Miura City in
Kanagawa, with an additional agenda to increase incoming residents, the city
established akiya bank (vacant house registry), a system to register andpublish information about vacant houses, as well as a trial residency system.
In Nara Prefecture, Yamato Machiya Bank Network is the result of
collaboration between an area with historical townscape and a citizen’s
group. The network is intended to collect, manage, and disseminate
information on vacant machiya buildings. As shown by these examples,municipalities are taking various actions to utilize and regenerate vacanthouses.
As a result, to keep using historical buildings, dual requirements should
be satisfied -- there must be a system to protect each building, and there
must be action to guide the building to utilization.

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【Note】
1. From Heisei 28 nendo “sonata jōrei” wo chūshin to shita rekishiteki kenzōbutsu norikatsuyō ni kakawaru kenkyūkai kirokushū [Record of the study group about utilizationof historical buildings through “the ordinance for excluding other cultural properties” in
FY 2016], March 2018

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6-3

Switch To “Keep and Change”

A new slogan replacing “Scrap and Build”
Seizō Uchida“Scrap and Build”“Scrap and Build” is a symbolic concept showing how Japanesearchitecture has developed in Japan, meaning “Buildings get old quickly, sothey should be demolished and replaced with a new one using the latest
technology.” Replacing an old building with a new one may appear entirely
reasonable. However, upon further examination, the concept treatsarchitecture merely as an object. This way of thinking ignores all cultural
aspects of architecture such as the sentiment of people who built or work in
a building, or its impact on the surrounding environment. Architecture isunderstood only rationally, not emotionally, which is akin to a person who
lacks the proper balance between reason and sentiment. The concept “Scrap
and Build” prioritizes economic efficiency as much as possible, anddehumanizes architecture.
The concept originates in the Meiji period. The Japanese government
tried to be dominant in East Asia and be equal with Western countries interms of power and economic growth. It began using the slogans, “Fukoku
kyōhei” (Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces) and “Shokusan
kōgyō” (Encourage New Industry). To achieve these aims, it was necessary tolearn and adopt the technology and knowledge of Western countries. At thesame time, it was perhaps necessary to abandon Japanese history andculture as relics of the past. In a period with limited resources, ideas like
“Scrap and Build” were regarded as reasonable, and the idea was spurred by
victories in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. The
notion of “Wakon Yōsai” (Japanese spirit with Western learning) emerged asa means to allay criticism that the country was focusing too heavily on
Westernization.
Japanese culture and history entered a period of re-evaluation from the
Taisho period to the beginning of the Showa period. However, this reevaluation was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. With
Japan’s defeat and the tumult of post-war restoration, the concept “Scrap
and Build” gained traction again in the service of economic development in aperiod of rapid economic growth. The legacy of this period is that to thepresent day, new buildings have been eagerly constructed, and old buildings
have been constantly demolished.1
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Foundation of Meiji-mura and skepticism towards “Scrap and Build”
People’s lifestyles improved significantly during the post-war period of
rapid economic growth. As a result, people tended to place greater value on
newness, and urban development continued at a rapid pace in large cities.
Even modernist buildings, styled after western buildings and constructed
after the Meiji period, were regarded as remains of the past and demolished.
It was against this backdrop that Museum Meiji-mura was founded inInuyama, Aichi, in 1965 as an open air museum for the exhibition and displayof historical buildings. Another open air museum, the Open-Air Museum ofJapanese Farmhouses, the first museum where farmhouses were relocatedand displayed, had already been established in Toyonaka, Osaka, in 1956.
However, the Museum Meiji-mura had a much greater impact. One of thefounding members was architect Yoshirō Taniguchi, who felt a sense ofimpending crisis in the effort to sustain historical architectural heritage. With
the cooperation of Motoo Tuchikawa, then chairman of the board of Nagoya
Railroad Co.,Ltd., Taniguchi acquired land and opened Museum Meiji-murawith fifteen relocated buildings.
On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Museum Meiji-mura,
Kōtarō Takeda, then chairman of the board of Nagoya Railroad Co.,Ltd.,
reflected on the time of the museum’s foundation, and stated, “During theperiod of rapid growth, with social obsession with development, buildings ofthe Meiji or Taisho period were condemned as useless and demolished in arandom and arbitrary manner. Sadly, a lot of people did not have the mindset
to regret that, either.”2 The architectural historian Shinjirō Kirishiki wrote
about the Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and relocated toMuseum Meiji-mura, the following reflections:“There was one huge problem during the architecture boom in theShowa 30s. Economy-centric utilitarianism began to intrude into
people’s minds, and it was taken for granted that old valuable buildings
should be demolished for new construction projects. As a result,buildings with the architectural heritage of the Meiji and Taisho period,buildings which fortunately survived the Great Kanto Earthquake andWorld War II, were demolished without mercy. Even if the buildings
could be repaired or sustained, they were casually demolished due tothe cost of repairs and inconvenience.”3328

What these reflections share is a comment on the prioritization of
economic principles and people’s indifference to demolishing architecture.
People believed that past history and culture were unnecessary for wealth,and thus accepted the concept of “Scrap and Build”. In the post-war period,
Museum Meiji-mura advocated the importance of protecting and passing on
our own history and culture. Since its foundation, the museum has greatly
contributed to the move toward architectural preservation in Japan. In 1967,
two years after Museum Meiji-mura opened, the Japan Open-air Folk House
Museum was established in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. The museum was anadditional reminder to the public of the importance of preserving buildings.

The Registered Tangible Cultural Property System and the trend ofpreservation
After the foundation of Museum Meiji-mura and Japan Open-air Folk
House Museum, protection and preservation of architectural heritage
became a social issue. In 1968, the government established an Agency for
Cultural Affairs in order to play a central role in various culturaladministrations. For example, the Act for the Protection of Cultural
Properties was originally enacted in 1950. The Act defined criteria for status
as a National Treasure, an Important Cultural Property, and a Natural
Monument of Special Historic Site and Special Place of Scenic Beauty. In 1975,
further protection under the Preservation District for Groups of Important
Historic Buildings was added, and in 1996, the Registered Tangible Cultural
Property System was created.
The Registered Tangible Cultural Property System is different from theconventional method to select, preserve, and designate what is academicallyvaluable. This system applies to properties fifty years old or older, andcreates a national list of these properties. Additionally, this system advocatesthat properties around us, including ineligible properties, are precious andvaluable, and that we should continue to use them.
Partially due to this system, it is far less common recently to assert thatold buildings should be demolished casually without any pause forconsideration. On the contrary, old things acquire new and varied value fromexisting for a long time. For example, a column may be more attractive withsome wind erosion gained from enduring harsh weather. People have begun
to understand that, if we look for positive elements, we can find somepreviously overlooked charms.

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Shift toward “Keep and Change”
At one time, there was a popular television program about refurbishingbuildings. The program’s producers selected buildings that were old or did
not have any current purpose for use, and producers sourced architects andcraftsmen to make these buildings more attractive. Based on the strong
influence of this program as informative entertainment, some of my students
realized the real appeal of architecture and decided to study architecture. I
appreciate what this program achieved, as the program centered on using
old buildings for as long as possible, and thus accomplished outcomes similar
to conventional means of preservation and restoration of architecture.
However, there is one key difference. The television program emphasized
how drastically different the original building looked from its original form.
However, preservation and restoration of architecture emphasizes how old
buildings are utilized, not concealing that they were old buildings. This is asignificant difference between the program and actual applications.
Recently, the Japanese architecture world has finally started discussing
how to maintain old buildings, not just how to replace an old one with a newone. Preservation, restoration, and utilization are now much more widely
accepted, possibly because we have to construct a stable society to meet thechallenges of population decline. Instead of rapid growth, we should
maintain the quality of society. With the reality of so many vacant houses allover the country, and the difficulty of redevelopment of these houses, re-use
is required, not new construction. We may be approaching a time when weare free from the spell of “Scrap and Build”.
I would like to propose “Keep and Change” as a slogan to represent a newconcept for a new era. “Keep” means that we will sustain buildings as long as
possible, with careful and frequent maintenance. “Change” means thatconversion of usage should be considered, if necessary, to keep the building.
It also means that if an owner cannot sustain a building, the building should
be used by new residents or owners. Like an individual, each building has its
own unique character. If you appreciate the character, you can discover avariety of charms. While some buildings do need repairs, if the building has
cultural value, the repairs must be done without harming its cultural value. If
it is a standard building with no specific cultural value for the public, you canmake substantial modifications, but you should maintain its character andcharm. If you have concerns, you can consult with a heritage manager (seep.100), who acts as a liaison, or with an architect who specializes in repairs.
Whatever the challenges, this new era requires new usages and new repair
concepts, not new objects.4

330

［Fig. 1］ Ueno Sakuragi Atari (Taitō,Tokyo): This Japanese-stylewooden house, built before WWII,
is repurposed as a cafe and bakery.
With minimum refurbishment, thetraditional appearance is sustained.
The floor of the tatami-mat rooms
is replaced with wooden flooring.

【Note】
1. Seizō Uchida, “Horon uketsugarerumono toshiteno rekishiteki kenzōbutsu - sukurappu
ando birudo kara kīpu ando chenji e ” [Addendum: historical buildings as what will beinherited - from Scrap and Build to Keep and Change], Bunkyō-ku bunkazai chōsa
hōkokusho Kyū Iseya Shichiten chōsa hōkokusho [Bunkyō ward cultural property survey
report: Former Iseya Shichiten], Bunkyo Ward Education Board, 2018, p.45-56
2. Kōtarō Takeda, “Meiji-mura Kaison 20 shūnen wo mukaete”[For 20th anniversary of
Meiji-mura], Meijimura tsushin [Meijimura News], No. 183/184, Museum Meiji-mura,
1985, p.2
3. Shinjirō Kirishiki, “Teikoku Hoteru kaisou”[Recollections on the Imperial Hotel],
Meijimura tsushin [Meijimura news], No. 183/184, Museum Meiji-mura, 1985, p.24-25
4. Seizō Uchida et. al, Uketsugareru sumai (Meaning and value of inheriting Japanesehouses), Jūsōken Sumai Dokuhon [Jusoken Housing Books], Kashiwa Shobō, 2016
【Source】
Fig. 1: Photograph taken by Seizō Uchida331

Authors
Jun Hatano, D. Eng., is a professor emeritus of Nippon Institute ofTechnology, and the president of Jun Hatano Architect & Associates. Born in
Kanagawa Prefecture in 1946, he is an alumnus of the Department ofArchitecture, School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology. Major awards include: Society of Architectural Historians ofJapan Award for Edo-jō II in 1998; and The Prize of AIJ 1998 (SpecificContributions Division) for “International Cooperation on the Restoration ofa Buddhist Monastery in Nepal''. Major publications include: Jōkaku
samurai-yashiki kozu shūsei Edo-jō II <samurai-yashiki> (Shibundo, 1996);
Fukugen edo no machi (Chikuma Shobo, 1998); The Buddhist Monasteries of
Nepal (Joint authorship, Chūō Kōron Bijyutsu Shuppan, 1998); and Nihon
meijō shūsei IV Edo-jo (Joint authorship, Shogakukan, 1986).
Seizō Uchida, D. Eng., is a professor of the Department of Architecture,
Faculty of Engineering, Kanagawa University. Born in Akita Prefecture in
1953, he graduated from the Department of Architecture, Faculty ofEngineering, Kanagawa University in 1975, and completed the doctoral
program without a doctoral degree in Architecture and Building Engineering
Graduate Major, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology in 1983. He later earned a Doctor of Engineering. Major awards
include: Kon Wajiro Award of Japan Society of Lifology, in 2004; the Award
from Nihon Seikatubunkashi Gakkai in 2012; and The Prize of AIJ 2017
(Research Theses Division). Major publications include: Uketsugareru sumai(Joint authorship, English title: Meaning and Value of Inheriting JapaneseHouses, Kashiwa Shobo, 2016), Nihon no kindai jutaku (SD Sensho 266,
Kajima Institute Publishing, 2016), Zusetsu kindai nihon jūtakushi shinban(Joint authorship, Kajima Institute Publishing, 2008), and Oyashiki haiken(Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2003).
Asae Ozawa, D. Eng., is a professor of the Department of Architecture andBuilding Engineering, School of Engineering, Tokai University. Born in
Kanagawa Prefecture in 1963, she graduated from the Department ofArchitecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, and themaster Course of Architecture and Building Engineering, Graduate School ofEngineering, Kanagawa University. Major publications include: Meijō shirīzu
Nijō-jō (Joint authorship, Gakushū Kenkyū-sha, 1996); Nihon jūkyo-shi (Joint
authorship, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2006); Meiji no kōshitsu kenchiku: kokka
ga motometa wafū-zō (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2008); and Myōou Tarō nikki<jo> doumiya-daiku ga mita bakumatsu ishin (Joint authorship, Tokai
University Press, 2017).
332

Toshiaki Koguro is a former staff member of the research department of
Housing Research Foundation Jusoken. Born in Tokyo Prefecture in 1944, heis an alumnus of the Department of Architecture and ArchitecturalEngineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University. He
joined Shimizu Corporation in April 1971, and worked in the design division.
Major publications include Wōtāfuronto no keikaku nōto (English title:
Planning Notes for Waterfront Development, joint authorship, Kyoritsu
Shuppan, 1994).
Setsuko Nakajima, D. Eng., is a professor of the Graduate School of Humanand Environmental Studies, Kyoto University. Born in Shiga Prefecture in
1969, she graduated from the Department of Architecture and ArchitecturalEngineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, and completed its
doctoral program without a doctoral degree in Architecture and ArchitecturalEngineering Graduate Major. She later earned a Doctor of Engineering. Major
publications include: Kindai nihon no kōgai jūtakuchi (Joint authorship,
Kajima Institute Publishing, 2000); Kindai towa nanika: toshi, kenchiku,
rekishi sirīzu 7” (Joint authorship, University of Tokyo Press, 2005); Higashiyama: Kyoto fūkei ron (Joint authorship, Shōwa-dō, 2006); and Kindai nihon
no rekishi toshi (Joint authorship, Shibunkaku, 2013).
Rie Nakayama, D. Eng., is an assistant professor of the Design andArchitecture Program, Kyoto Institute of Technology. Born in Toyama
Prefecture, she graduated from Kanazawa College of Art, and completed themaster course at Tokyo University of the Arts. After studying in the doctoral
course of the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, andworking at Kanazawa Architectural Design Office Inc., she earned a Doctor ofEngineering for Nihon no mokuzō kenchiku ni okeru “arai” no rekishiteki
kenkyū in 2012. Major publications include Kenchiku to toshi no hozon saisei
dezain (Joint authorship, Kajima Institute Publishing, 2019).
Takako Hatada is a staff member of the Corporation Communication
Department, Shimizu Corporation. Born in 1955, she entered Shimizu
Corporation in April 1976, and worked in the Human Resources Department
and HR Development Department. From January 2000, she engaged in the
production of the Book of 200-year History of Shimizu Corporation, which
was published in November 2003. Following completion of this project, sheorganized and archived precious historical materials for the Shimizu Archives.
She currently manages the archived materials, gives lectures, and conducts
surveys of historical buildings.

333Yoshiko Mizunuma, D. Eng., is a professor emeritus of Kanto Gakuin
University. Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1953, she graduated from the
Department of Housing and Architecture, Faculty of Human Sciences andDesign, Japan Women’s University, and completed the master course of
Division of Housing, Graduate School of Human Sciences and Design, Japan
Women’s University. Major publications include: Wayō no kokoro wo iksu
sumai (Shōkokusha, 1997); Kenchikushi no mawari butai (Joint authorship,
Shōkokusha, 1999); Nihon jūkyoshi (Joint authorship, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan,2006); and Jay H. Morgan: Amerika to Nihon wo ikita kenchikuka (Kantō
Gakuin University Press, 2009).
Zentarō Yagasaki, Ph. D., is a professor of the Department of Architecture,
Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Electro-communication University. Born in
Nagano Prefecture in 1958, he completed the master’s program inarchitecture at Kyoto Institute of Technology. He later earned a Doctor ofPhilosophy. Major publications include: Zusetsu kenchiku no rekishi: seiyō,nihon, kindai (Joint authorship, Gakugei Shuppan-Sha, 2003); and Niwa tokenchiku no sencha bunka - kindai suki kuukan wo yomitoku (Joint authorshipand editing, Shibunkaku, 2018).
Akira Yasuno, D. Eng., is a professor of the Department of Architecture,
Faculty of Architecture, Nippon Institute of Technology. Born in Saitama in
1971, he graduated from the Department of Architecture and Building
Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and completed a doctoral coursein the Department of Built Environment, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of
Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Major publications
include Sekai-ichi utsukushii danchi zukan (Joint authorship, X-Knowledge,2012).

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[About Housing Research Foundation JUSOKEN]
The Foundation was established in 1948 by the late Yasuo Shimizu (former
President of Shimizu Corporation) as "Shin Jyūtaku Fukyū Kai," a Public
Interest Corporation chartered by Tokyo Metropolis. At the time of its
establishment after World War II, the serious lack of housing was a criticalsocial problem in Japan. Therefore, the Foundation was established with themandate “to solve the serious housing problem through comprehensive
study of housing construction and implementation of its findings”.
Subsequently, as the total number of housing units began to exceed thenumber of households in 1972, the Foundation started to conduct
comprehensive research of housing. In 1988, the name of the Foundation
was changed to “Housing Research Foundation JUSOKEN” to reflect its wider
research-based practice. The Foundation was authorized by the Cabinet
Office as “General Incorporated Foundation JUSOKEN” on July 1st, 2011.
Throughout its history, the Foundation has maintained the steady purposeof acting ”to promote comprehensive research related to housing as well as
human resource development, and to contribute to improving lifestyles byimplementing its findings in society.”
Jusoken Committee to Survey and Study Existing Houses in Shimizu-gumi’s
Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū
Chairperson: Jun Hatano (Professor Emeritus, Nippon Institute ofTechnology)
Members:

Seizō Uchida(Professor, Kanagawa University)
Asae Ozawa (Professor, Tokai University)
Setsuko Nakajima (Professor, Kyoto University)
Yoshiko Mizunuma (Professor Emeritus, Kanto Gakuin
University)
Zentarō Yagasaki(Professor, Osaka Electro-Communication
University)
Akira Yasuno (Professor, Nippon Institute of Technology)
Toshiaki Koguro (Former staff member of Jusoken)
Takako Hatada (Shimizu Corporation)
Administration: Housing Research Foundation JUSOKEN
Shin’ichi Michie, Kōichirō Baba, Aiko Okazaki, Aya Takechi

335

<Jusoken Housing Books>

The Vitality and Resilience of Inherited Japanese Houses-100 Years of Shimizu-gumi HousesFirst Edition: May 10th, 2020
Written and edited by Jusoken Committee to Survey and Study Existing
Houses in Shimizu-gumi’s Jūtaku Kenchiku Zushū
Translation: Takayuki Ichikawa （※）
Translation Supervision: Carole Forster-Ichikawa （※ ※）（ ※ ） Takayuki Ichikawa is an English-Japanese translator. Born inTokyo, he studied Health Science and Architecture, specializing in
housing, and acquired a Masters of Engineering (Architecture) at
the University of Tokyo.
（※※） Carole Forster-Ichikawa is from Western Canada. She holds
a Bachelor of Arts, Honours with distinction in History and a
Bachelor of Education with great distinction in Secondary
Education from the University of Regina, and a Masters of Arts
in History from McMaster University.

First Publication of English edition : May 31 , 2021
ⒸHousing Research Foundation JUSOKEN 2021.

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