Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki

About the Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki

The Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki (青木蘭麝堂新座敷, Aoki Ranjadō Shinzashiki) is a single-storey timber reception room of the early Meiji era (1868 to 1882) attached to the north side of the main house at Aoki Ranjado in Wakisanga-cho, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2020. It was built for looking out at the garden to the east.

A Zashiki is a formal tatami room for receiving guests. The Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki holds just one, a six-mat room with a Tokonoma alcove, in a building of 22 square meters under a metal roof. It was altered in the early Showa era and again in 1969.

Why the Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki Was Registered

The Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 April 2020, under number 18-0199. Of the three buildings at Aoki Ranjado, it is the only one listed as a model of architectural design; the storehouse and the annex were listed for their place in the landscape.

The national description points to its generous use of menkawa timber and round logs, and to a design pulled together in the manner of Sukiya-zukuri, the relaxed style that grew out of tea-house building. Posts are left with rounded, bark-marked corners rather than squared off, and whole logs are shown as they are. In a room of only six mats, the effect is of a small, carefully composed retreat facing the garden.

Details, and a Question of Date

The outer walls of the Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki are mostly white Shikkui plaster, with some Shitami-itabari clapboarding. The room projects from the north of the house toward the garden on the east, so that a guest seated inside faces the planting. Inside, the thing to notice is how the Menkawa-bashira posts and log members frame the alcove.

The sources disagree on its age. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the building to the early Meiji era, while Fukui City's list of registered properties gives the late Edo period, altered in the early Showa era and in 1969. This article follows the national database.

The family's own account mentions a "new zashiki" in the main house, built in the formal Shoin-zukuri manner, where Matsudaira Shigetomi, lord of the Fukui domain, is said to have rested during a falconry outing; it also mentions small shoji fitted with four panes of early imported glass. Shigetomi ruled in the late eighteenth century, so the story concerns a late Edo room. Whether it refers to the sukiya-style Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki that the national database dates to early Meiji cannot be confirmed from public sources.

Visiting the Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki

The Aoki Ranjado New Zashiki lies at the back of the family home, on the north side of the main house, facing the garden to the east. The family does not publish whether the room or the garden can be viewed, or whether there is a fee, so call Aoki Ranjado before you go and ask about photography at the same time. Directions are on the Aoki Ranjado page.