Nishino Family Residence Tea House

A Tea House from the Meiji Paper Boom

The Nishino Family Residence Tea House (西野家住宅茶室, Nishino-ke Jūtaku Chashitsu) is a tea house built around 1909 in Sadatomo-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 June 2017. It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 82 square metres, registered as number 18-0181.

It stands in the south-west corner of the compound, a gabled building roofed with pantiles, with its entrance on the east side.

A Record of Prosperity

The Nishino tea house was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a building that conveys the prosperity of washi production.

That a papermaking household could afford a proper tea house at the end of the Meiji era says much about the strength of the Goka paper trade at the time.

Lacquer and Bare Wood

The Nishino Family Residence Tea House has two rooms, of six and four and a half tatami mats, set north to south, with a corridor wrapping around the south and west sides in an L. The outer walls are Shikkui plaster above wooden Koshiita wainscoting.

The interior finish is what sets it apart. Posts and beams are coated in clear lacquer that lets the grain show through, while the ceiling cornices and the battens of the board ceiling are finished in black lacquer. Only the alcove post and the lintel over the alcove are left as plain, unfinished wood.

Framed by glossy lacquered lines, the pale wood of the alcove stands out softly. It is a deliberate contrast between what is lacquered and what is not.

Seeing the Tea House

The Nishino Family Residence Tea House is tucked into the back of the compound and is not visible from the street. The interior can only be seen during special openings, and access to the rooms varies from event to event.

If you get the chance, look at the building from the east entrance, then compare the bare wood of the alcove with the lacquered frame around it.