Aizanso

About Aizanso

Aizanso (愛山荘, also written Aizansō) is a residence in Wakatake-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, begun in 1916, whose main house, annex, kura zashiki, tea house and five other structures were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2017. The name means roughly "the villa for loving the mountain", a reference to Mount Hino, the cone-shaped peak known locally as Echizen Fuji that fills the view to the east.

The estate covers more than 5,000 square metres a short walk southwest of Takefu Station, in the old town of Takefu. The main house stands at the north end. Covered corridors run south from it to a storehouse fitted out as a reception room and then to a stone storehouse, while a tea house and its waiting arbor sit in the garden to the east. Along the street on the west side are two plastered storehouses and a gate.

Aizanso did not appear all at once. The household kept adding to it for a quarter of a century, from 1916 to 1942, and the nine registered structures record that process: a Taisho-era house in the sukiya manner, then early Showa additions in plaster, timber and stone.

How the estate grew

Dates from the national register put the main house first, in 1916. The first and second storehouses, the gate and wall, and the six-mat room now called the "old annex" date from about the same time. Aizanso was built as a private family residence.

In 1928 the kura zashiki went up southwest of the main house, and the tea house and waiting arbor were added to the garden around then. The stone storehouse, built of Shakudani stone, followed in 1936 at the southern end of the site, and the annex was enlarged in 1942. The tea house and arbor were refitted at some point between 1966 and 1989.

Aizanso has since passed through several owners and now belongs to Onodani Kiko Co., Ltd. After a period of decline it was restored and reopened on 4 November 2025 as Koshi no Kuni Aizanso, a restaurant that seats guests in the rooms of the main house and annex. The second storehouse has become a small gallery of local crafts, including Echizen knives and Echizen ceramics.

Mount Hino and the name

Mount Hino rises southeast of Echizen City. When Fujiwara no Tametoki was appointed governor of Echizen Province in 996, his daughter Murasaki Shikibu, later the author of The Tale of Genji, came with him to the provincial capital at Takefu and wrote a poem about the snow on its slopes. Aizanso quotes that poem at the top of its website.

The main house answers the mountain directly. The ground floor opens toward the garden, and the upper floor has a board veranda on the east side set square to Mount Hino. The double view, garden below and mountain above, is what the name Aizanso refers to.

Layout and a walking order

Read together, the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions give a clear picture of the plan. The main house holds the north end, with the annex joined to it by a corridor on the east. A second corridor runs southwest to the kura zashiki, and a third carries on to the stone storehouse at the southern tip. Four buildings are linked in a single covered route.

The tea house stands east of the kura zashiki, with the waiting arbor to its southwest. The arbor is turned slightly north relative to the tea house, so that guests seated on its bench look out across the garden. All three of these structures belong to the building campaign of around 1928.

The west side meets the street. The first storehouse holds the northwest corner, the gate and wall come next, and the second storehouse continues the line, so that white and black plaster, board walls and tiled roofs make up the public face of Aizanso. The first storehouse has a single door on the street side and keeps all of its windows facing inward.

The garden is a stroll garden that borrows Mount Hino as its backdrop, with a pond, stone lanterns and, by one count, about 100 plum trees. A sensible route is to start at the veranda of the main house, follow the corridors to the kura zashiki and stone storehouse, step down into the garden for the tea house and arbor, and finish by looking at the storehouses and gate from the street. It follows the order in which Aizanso was built.

What was registered

All nine structures at Aizanso were registered on 28 June 2017 under consecutive numbers, 18-0168 to 18-0176. Four of them (the main house, annex, stone storehouse and tea house) were registered as models of good design; the other five (the kura zashiki, both earthen storehouses, the waiting arbor and the gate and wall) for their contribution to the historic landscape.

• Main House: 1916, 2-storey timber building, building area 245 square metres
• Annex: about 1916, enlarged 1942, single-storey timber building, building area 151 square metres
• Kura Zashiki: 1928, 2-storey earthen storehouse, building area 51 square metres
• First Storehouse: about 1916, 2-storey earthen storehouse, building area 47 square metres
• Second Storehouse: about 1916, 2-storey earthen storehouse, building area 74 square metres
• Stone Storehouse: 1936, 2-storey stone building, building area 63 square metres
• Tea House: about 1928, single-storey timber building, building area 33 square metres
• Waiting Arbor: about 1928, single-storey timber structure, building area 4.7 square metres
• Gate and Wall: about 1916, gate 1.8 metres wide, wall 6.2 metres long

Echizen City's own list differs from the national database on which side of the site the second storehouse faces and swaps the floor areas of the tea house and the arbor. This page and the pages for each building follow the national figures.

Visiting Aizanso

The nearest station is Takefu on the Hapi-Line Fukui, about 17 minutes on foot. Takefu-shin Station on the Fukui Railway Fukubu Line is about 20 minutes away on foot. Echizen-Takefu Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and the Takefu interchange of the Hokuriku Expressway are each about 10 minutes by car. There is free parking for 60 cars, with room for coaches. For maps and post, use the address 6-27 Wakatake-cho, Echizen City rather than the registry address.

Aizanso currently operates as a restaurant. Lunch runs from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (last orders 2:30 p.m.) and dinner from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (last orders 8:30 p.m.). It is closed on Mondays, or on Tuesday when Monday is a public holiday. Bookings are taken by phone (0778-29-3590) or online, and walk-ins are seated when there is space.

The official website describes Aizanso only as a restaurant and does not say whether the buildings or garden can be seen without dining. Diners can walk the garden and look into the gallery in the second storehouse before or after the meal. If you want to see the buildings only, or to photograph the interiors, it is safest to phone ahead. Hours and closing days were checked on the official website on 26 September 2026.