A Timber Merchant's Villa That Became a Restaurant
On a wooded rise on the eastern edge of Nagoya, a cluster of low wooden buildings stands among scattered trees and a garden of some four thousand tsubo, more than a hectare. This is Hasshokan, a ryotei, one of the high-end traditional restaurants where Japanese cuisine is served in private rooms looking onto a garden. Its origins are older than its trade. In the mid-Meiji period, in the 1880s, a timber merchant named Shibata Magosuke built a villa here, and a man in that business naturally used fine wood. The buildings he raised were sukiya structures, the refined residential style descended from the tea house, built with the quiet luxury of excellent materials handled with restraint.
In 1910 the villa opened its doors as a ryori-ryokan, an inn that served meals, and in 1925 it passed to a company formed by Nagoya businessmen. It has operated as Hasshokan ever since. The name comes from a Zen phrase given by the Meiji-era monk Unsho. Over the decades the place drew artists and connoisseurs; the celebrated potter and gourmet Kitaoji Rosanjin is among the figures tied to its history.
In 2020 the Agency for Cultural Affairs designated nine of its buildings, together with the land, as Important Cultural Properties. The nine are the entrance building, the Matsu-no-ma hall, the Miyuki-no-ma hall, the new-parlor building, the Kiku-no-ma hall, the farmhouse called Inakaya, and three gates: the main gate, the west gate, and the middle gate. What earned the designation was not a single masterpiece but the way a rare surviving Meiji villa grew, building by building, into something layered and complete.
Horiguchi Sutemi and the Room Built for an Emperor
The building that draws architects from across the country is the Miyuki-no-ma. It was designed by Horiguchi Sutemi, the leading scholar and practitioner of modern sukiya and tea-room architecture, and built in 1950 to lodge Emperor Showa and the Empress during the fifth National Sports Festival, held that year in Aichi. The country was only five years out of the war, timber was scarce, and the commission was difficult. The result won the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize the following year and was later chosen among the first twenty works on the DOCOMOMO Japan list of modern buildings.
The main room runs to sixteen mats. Along its west side a four-ken length of bark-edged cedar forms the frame of the alcove, with the display recess at the center and flanking shelves to either side. On the south wall a built-in writing alcove carries a round window borrowed from the Shoiken pavilion at Katsura Imperial Villa, one of the touchstones of Japanese taste. The sliding screens toward the next room are faced with gold-leaf fabric salvaged from Noh costume, worked into a landscape. Most telling is the ceiling. A single line of paper screens runs along the central axis with battened ceilings to either side, and the room lights are hidden in the ceiling cavity so that the light reaches the room only through that band of paper. The two sides are deliberately unmatched. This is the discipline of the tea room turned to modern ends, which is exactly what Horiguchi was after.
The same building holds the Zangetsu-no-ma, a ten-mat room Horiguchi modeled on a famous Omotesenke tea room, which served as the Empress's sleeping chamber. His hand returned to Hasshokan more than once. In 1953 he extended the new-parlor building and reworked the Kiku-no-ma, and in 1958 he completed the Sakura-no-ma, often called the culmination of his work here. Across these rooms a visitor can trace, in one place, how he tried to fuse the inherited language of sukiya with the straight lines and bright fittings of the modern.
The Garden, the Farmhouse, and How to Visit
Set in the middle of the garden is the Inakaya, a farmhouse roughly four centuries old that was moved here from Koka in Shiga in the early Showa years. A sunken hearth sits at its center, and the kitchen staff grill dishes over it in front of the guests; after dark the building is lit and reflected in the pond. The garden itself carries the year around it, from the early cherries that open the spring through deep summer green, autumn color, and the bare winter grove, and the older rooms all face it, every one a private space opening to the trees.
A point worth being clear about: Hasshokan is a working restaurant, not a museum, and access reflects that. The ordinary way to experience the buildings is to dine, which is a significant occasion in both cost and reservation, with the grand rooms requiring sizeable parties. Since its 2020 designation, however, the restaurant has held guided viewing tours that let visitors see the Miyuki-no-ma, the Sakura-no-ma, and other rooms outside of a meal. Anyone serious about modern Japanese architecture should watch for these and book ahead, because they are the most direct route into Horiguchi's rooms.
The setting helps explain why the architecture reads the way it does. The buildings sit on uneven ground among thin woodland, each linked to the next by covered corridors, so that moving through Hasshokan is a sequence of framed views rather than a single grand prospect. That choreography, Meiji villa and postwar masterwork held in one garden, is the thing the designation was meant to protect.
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Q&A
- Can I just walk in and look around?
- No. Hasshokan is a working high-end restaurant, not an open museum. You experience the buildings by dining, which requires a reservation and is costly, or by joining one of the guided viewing tours the restaurant has held since the 2020 designation. Check the official site for current arrangements.
- Who designed the Miyuki-no-ma?
- Horiguchi Sutemi, a leading figure in modern sukiya and tea-room architecture. He built it in 1950 to lodge Emperor Showa and the Empress during that year's National Sports Festival in Aichi. It won the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 1951.
- How old are the buildings?
- The entrance building and Matsu-no-ma hall date from the mid-Meiji villa of the 1880s; the new-parlor and Kiku-no-ma halls from the late Meiji inn period; the three gates from the mid-Meiji years. The Miyuki-no-ma is the postwar addition of 1950. The Inakaya farmhouse is older still, around four centuries, moved here from Shiga.
- What is sukiya architecture?
- A refined residential style that grew out of the tea house, prizing natural materials, asymmetry, and understatement over symmetry and display. Hasshokan shows both its Meiji form and Horiguchi's modern reinterpretation of it.
- How do I get there?
- The restaurant is about three minutes on foot from Yagoto Station on the subway Tsurumai and Meijo lines, in Showa-ku, Nagoya. It is also known for its garden of roughly four thousand tsubo, visible from every room.
Basic Information
| Name | Hasshokan (nine buildings, with the land) |
|---|---|
| Location | Ishizaka, Koji-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (designated 2020) |
| Buildings | Entrance, Matsu-no-ma, Miyuki-no-ma, new-parlor, Kiku-no-ma halls; Inakaya farmhouse; main, west, and middle gates |
| Origins | Mid-Meiji villa of timber merchant Shibata Magosuke; a restaurant since 1910 |
| Architect | Miyuki-no-ma (1950) and other rooms by Horiguchi Sutemi |
| Owner | Hasshokan Co., Ltd. |
| Access | About 3 min on foot from Yagoto Station (subway Tsurumai / Meijo lines) |
| Visiting | A working restaurant; dining by reservation, or occasional guided tours since 2020 |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hasshokan
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/00005287
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hasshokan Miyuki-no-ma Building
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/594509
- Hasshokan Official Website: About
- https://www.hasshoukan.com/about/
- Hasshokan Official Website: Rooms
- https://www.hasshoukan.com/room/
Last verified: 2026.06.24
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Hasshokan Entrance building 0.00 km
- Hasshokan Pine Room 0.00 km
- Hasshokan Miyuki Room 0.00 km
- Hasshokan New Tatami Room Building 0.00 km
- Hasshokan Chrysanthemum Room 0.00 km
- Hasshokan Country house 0.00 km
- Hasshokan main gate 0.00 km
- Hasshokan west gate 0.00 km