Nagoya City Tozanso Main House

What Nagoya City Tozanso Main House Is

Nagoya City Tozanso Main House (名古屋市東山荘主屋, also written Tōzansō) is a Taisho-era villa building in Hatsujimachi, Mizuho Ward, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 21 June 2013. It is a timber building of a single storey with a partial 2nd storey, roofed in tile, with a building area of 357 square meters.

The man behind it was Ito Shinichi, a wholesaler in cotton cloth. He acquired about 12,000 square meters on the east bank of the Yamazaki River and spent more than ten years building here, starting around 1912. The name Tōzansō means the mountain villa of the Ito family, and Ito is said to have chosen it himself.

The building is not a single block. Three linked sections, known in Japanese as the front, middle and rear halls, step westward one after another, each shifted slightly from the last. Japanese architecture calls this arrangement gankō, after the staggered formation of flying geese. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the result as high-quality modern Japanese-style architecture with a complex and varied exterior.

Why It Was Registered

The registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property rests on a single criterion: that the building contributes to the historic landscape of the country. What Nagoya City Tozanso Main House demonstrates is how a wealthy household of the Taisho era absorbed Western habits of living without abandoning a Japanese frame.

A formal Shoin-zukuri reception room sits beside a Western-style parlour. The Western rooms themselves carry Sukiya-zukuri detailing, so the two halves of the house do not read as separate worlds. Two tea rooms, Kōsaian and Tōkyūan, connect directly to the main body, and the rear hall rises to two storeys and projects over the slope in the manner of a hillside stage. Reception hall, parlour and Chashitsu all sit under one continuous roof.

The later history is documented. Ito died in 1936 and left instructions that the villa pass to Nagoya City and be opened to the public. The city opened the grounds as a park in 1939. Wartime conditions closed them again, after which the house served as the mayor's official residence. Public use resumed in 1968, and since then the tea rooms and Japanese rooms have been available for hire. In 2011 the city added the main house to its list of Certified Regional Building Assets as number 22.

What to Look For

Start with the plan. Because the halls step westward rather than lining up, the view changes every few paces along the corridor. The grounds hold four distinct gardens, one before the entrance, one facing the reception room, and a Roji for each of the two tea rooms, all wrapped in natural woodland. Each room therefore faces a different composition.

In the reception room, look up. The ceiling of the principal space is a fukiyose Gō-tenjō, a coffered ceiling whose ribs are grouped in close pairs instead of being spaced evenly. The effect breaks up a surface that would otherwise read as a flat grid.

The upper floor of the rear hall projects toward the slope, with a Kōran railing running along a stage-like Engawa. Branches layer over one another below. The same spot reads very differently in fresh green and in autumn colour.

There are two Western rooms. One faces the front garden and is finished in a restrained sukiya manner, so the transition from the tatami rooms is gentle. The other has a white ceiling and stained glass set into its windows and sliding doors. A house that holds both is unusual for its date.

Tōkyūan measures 6 mats and Kōsaian 4.5. Each has its own approach garden, and the Japanese rooms are fitted with a Mizuya preparation area. Lanterns, a stone water basin and clipped dōdan azalea are set through the grounds; cherry in spring and maple in late autumn mark the two busiest moments of the year.

Visiting

The garden is free to enter, open 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Getting inside Nagoya City Tozanso Main House works differently: the tea rooms, tatami rooms and Western rooms are hired rather than toured. The building is open 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closes on Mondays, moving to the following non-holiday weekday when a Monday falls on a public holiday, and from 29 December to 3 January.

Hire charges vary by room. Tōkyūan costs 2,400 yen for a full day, the first tatami room 5,000 yen, and the whole facility 18,400 yen for a day. Tea utensils are lent without charge. Applications are normally made in person at the villa. Bookings for tea ceremony, flower arrangement and related traditional arts open on the first of the month six months ahead; other uses open three months ahead.

Photography is permitted in the tea-garden paths, the front garden and at the main gate, and the villa is used for pre-wedding portrait sessions. Pets are not allowed in the garden. Since these conditions can change, confirm with the villa before travelling.

Two routes reach the site. From Mizuho Kuyakusho Station on the Sakura-dori subway line, take exit 1 and walk 12 minutes east. By city bus, alight at Tanabe-dori 2-chome and walk 5 minutes west; routes Kanayama 16 and Sakae 20 both stop there. The entrance is on the east side of the grounds. Parking is limited and public transport is recommended.

Day-to-day operation is handled by the Nagoya City Cultural Promotion Agency as designated manager, and its website lists events and room availability.