About the Hakkakutei Billiards Building
The Hakkakutei Billiards Building (八鶴亭ビリヤード棟, Hakkakutei Biriyādotō) is a single-storey timber games room of the early Shōwa period on the inn's site by Hakkaku Lake in Tōgane, Togane City, Chiba Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 28, 2009. It adjoins the Bath Building on the east and is the smallest of the five registered buildings at Hakkakutei.
It measures 6.4 m by 6.0 m, with a building area of 39 m². The billiard room takes the north side and a corridor runs along the south. The inn gave its guests a games room of their own, built as a separate small building next to the baths.
A Stone Look in Timber and Mortar
The Hakkakutei Billiards Building looks nothing like its four neighbours. Although it is built of timber, its outer walls are rendered in mortar and scored with joint lines so that they read as coursed stone. At the corners, pilaster forms stand out from the wall, giving the little building the bearing of a stone-built Western house.
The roof is hipped and laid with red pantiles. Among the tiled roofs of the Main and New buildings and the rest of the Japanese-style group, the pairing of mock-stone walls and red tiles is impossible to miss.
The structure stays timber; only the finish imitates stone. A room for billiards, a Western game, was given a Western face to match.
Why the Billiards Building Was Registered
The Hakkakutei Billiards Building was registered as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out its stone-like walls and red tiles as striking within an otherwise Japanese-style group of buildings.
Its value lies less in its size than in the variety a small Western-style building brings to a site of Japanese inn buildings. It also shows how fully equipped the inn once was, with a games room alongside its guest wings, banquet hall and baths.
Seeing the Billiards Building
Like the Bath Building, the Hakkakutei Billiards Building stands at the back of the site and does not face the lakeshore road. To see inside you will need to come on one of the irregular public open days held by the volunteer group Minna no Hakkakukan, and we found no specific notice of whether the billiards building is included (checked October 2026).
The group's activity reports describe clearing out an unregistered single-storey timber building next to the billiards building so that it can be put to use. Directions and general visiting conditions are on the Hakkakutei page.
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Q&A
- How big is the Hakkakutei Billiards Building?
- It is a single-storey timber building measuring 6.4 m by 6.0 m, with a building area of 39 m², the smallest of the five registered buildings at Hakkakutei.
- Is the Hakkakutei Billiards Building made of stone?
- No. It is a timber building whose mortar walls are scored with joints to look like stone masonry, with pilaster forms at the corners.
- What colour is the roof of the Hakkakutei Billiards Building?
- It has a hipped roof of red pantiles, which, with the stone-like walls, sets it apart from the Japanese-style buildings around it.
- Can I go inside the Hakkakutei Billiards Building?
- It is not open regularly. The preservation group's irregular public open days are the opportunity, but ask in advance whether the billiards building is included (checked October 2026).
- Why is the Hakkakutei Billiards Building a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- It was registered in 2009 as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape, for the striking stone-like walls and red tiles it brings to a Japanese-style group of buildings.
Basic Information
| Name | Hakkakutei Billiards Building (八鶴亭ビリヤード棟) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1406-1 Tōgane, Togane City, Chiba Prefecture, and other lots |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | 2009 (registered) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 6.4 m by 6.0 m, building area 39 m² (timber, single storey, tiled roof) |
| Owner | Hakkakutei Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Not open regularly. May be seen on irregular public open days |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Hakkakutei Billiards Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00007614
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hakkakutei Billiards Building
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/183826
- Togane City: Hakkakutei, Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Japanese)
- https://www.city.togane.chiba.jp/0000004554.html
- Chiba Prefectural Board of Education: Hakkakutei Main Building and others (Japanese)
- https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kyouiku/bunkazai/bunkazai/q111-048.html
- Hakkakuko e Ikō: The sixth building (Japanese)
- https://hakkakuko.com/2026/01/17/6thbuilding/
Last verified: 2026.10.01
