Retirement Quarters with a Tea Room
The Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing (旧八木商店本店離れ) is a single storey retirement house of 1918 in Hashihama, Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) on October 14, 2021. Built of wood under a tiled roof, it covers 68 square meters and stands in the south-west corner of the property, its roof visible from the street over the front wall.
The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. The plan is L-shaped: linked reception rooms occupy the western arm, and a four and a half mat Chashitsu tea room with its own Mizuya preparation area fills the southern one. Where the guest wing of the main house received callers, the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing was built one step back from all of that.
The museum records the building as the retirement quarters of Yoneko, mother of Yagi Kamesaburō, who died in May 1924. The other structures on the property handled trade and family life; this one was planned around the days of a single person.
Why the Retirement House Was Registered
Registration came under the criterion for structures contributing to the historic character of the national landscape, as register number 38-0160, in the hundredth round on October 14, 2021, together with the shop, reception room, residence wing, inner storehouse and front wall.
The building works on both sides of the boundary. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a point of interest seen from the garden and, in the same breath, as a building visible over the front wall. The wall was lowered where it passes this house so that people on the road catch the roof and part of the wall.
The tea room counted as well. Four and a half mats with an adjoining preparation area is exactly the scale a merchant family's retirement house needed. Built on a Sukiya-zukuri foundation and then fitted with Taishō period joinery, it repeats in miniature what the whole compound does.
What to Look For
The alcove post in the tea room is a red pine trunk with its bark left on, so the surface keeps the irregularity of the growing tree rather than the flatness of a planed post. In the wall opens a Shitaji-mado, where the bamboo lath of the wall itself is left exposed as a lattice. So far, orthodox tea room practice.
Then the south-west face gives way to large glazed sliding screens. Light squeezed through the lath window and light poured in through plate glass share the same four and a half mats. Tea rooms are supposed to be dim, and this one argues with the rule; that argument is the point of the building.
The L-shaped plan registers physically. Moving from the western rooms into the southern tea room turns your line of sight by ninety degrees and swaps one view of the garden for another. The building is small enough that the change happens in a few steps.
Look at it from outside as well. Behind the front wall the roof runs low, and small wicket doors flank the house on either side. Seen upward from the road and downward from the garden, it reads as two different buildings.
Visiting
Apply to the Yagi Shoten Honten Museum to see the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing. Reservations are the rule, the charge is 1,000 yen a head, and the closing days are Sundays, Mondays and public holidays. The telephone (0898-41-5101) is answered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. whenever the house is open. Turning up unbooked may mean being refused, and parties above 10 should discuss arrangements first.
Eating, drinking and smoking are ruled out in the rooms and in the garden alike. A tea gathering here is a matter of room hire, settled individually, so name the tea room when you apply. Photography sessions follow the same procedure.
From Hashihama Station on the JR Yosan Line the walk north takes about 15 minutes, and buses for Hashihama leave from in front of Imabari Station. Park north of the museum entrance. Because the roof and part of the wall rise above the front wall, a turn along the street before or after your visit will fix the layout of the property in your mind.
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Q&A
- What was the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing used for?
- It was a retirement house. The museum records it as the quarters of Yoneko, mother of Yagi Kamesaburō, who died in May 1924.
- Does the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing have a tea room?
- Yes, a four and a half mat tea room with a preparation area on the south side. Its alcove post is a red pine trunk with the bark left on, and the wall carries an exposed lath window.
- Can visitors enter the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing?
- Yes. The whole property opens as the Yagi Shoten Honten Museum, normally on a reservation made by telephone on 0898-41-5101. The charge is 1,000 yen a head.
- When was the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing built and registered?
- It was built in 1918 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) on October 14, 2021, under register number 38-0160.
- Is the Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing visible from the street?
- The roof and part of the wall can be seen over the front wall, which was lowered where it passes the house. Small wicket doors stand on either side of it.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing |
|---|---|
| Location | 406-1 Hashihama Ni-chome, Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, and other lots |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered on October 14, 2021 (Reiwa 3) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, single storey, tiled roof, floor area 68 square meters |
| Owner | Fujitaka Kosan Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Open as the Yagi Shoten Honten Museum by advance reservation; admission 1,000 yen |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Detached Wing (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014111
- Former Yagi Shoten Main Store Garden Registered as a National Registered Monument, Place of Scenic Beauty (Imabari City, Division of Cultural Promotion)
- https://www.city.imabari.ehime.jp/bunka/info/017/
Last verified: 2026.09.04