The Copper Roof of 1934
The Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House (旧林田春次郎家住宅迎賓館, also written Hayashida Harujirō, Geihinkan) is a two-storey wooden building of 1934 at Shinmachi in Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property on 26 January 2011 under registration number 40-0068.
It stands north of the main dwelling on the same walled plot. The roof is hip-and-gable in form but laid in sheet copper rather than tile, and its pitch is unusually gentle, so the whole mass reads lower and wider than its two full storeys would suggest. Building area is 124 square metres, less than two thirds that of the main house. The copper is the reason for the name the town gave it: Akagane Goten, the copper palace.
The interior is organised vertically by purpose. The ground floor holds small rooms. The upper floor is given over to a great hall with an anteroom beside it, and along the eastern side runs a hiroen, a wide veranda glazed to the outside. The view from that veranda reaches Kawaradake, the limestone peak east of the city whose first summit was quarried away for cement during the twentieth century.
Harujiro Hayashida built it in 1934, nine years before Tagawa City existed. At that point he had led the town of Ita and served in the prefectural assembly; the mayoralty came in 1943, when Ita and Gotoji merged. The building is habitually described as the guest house of the first mayor of Tagawa, which is accurate about the man but retrospective about the title.
Registered as a Model of Design
Registered Tangible Cultural Properties fall under one of three criteria, and the guest house was listed under the second: property that provides a model of design. The main house beside it, registered the same day in the same sixty-ninth round, came in under a different criterion, for its contribution to the historic landscape. The distinction is a real one. Assessment of the guest house rests on the quality of what was built into its rooms.
Much of that quality is timber. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry singles out the use of meiboku, choice figured woods selected for grain and colour rather than for structural convenience, and calls the resulting Japanese-style design accomplished. Anyone who has priced such material knows what it represents: the northern Kyushu coalfield at the height of its money, spent on a building meant to be looked at closely by people who would notice.
Two features carry the argument. The great hall is roofed with an oriage go-tenjo, a coffered ceiling whose perimeter curves upward before meeting the wall, a treatment reserved for rooms of the highest rank. Above the openings, the ranma transom panels are cut with a chrysanthemum motif. The chrysanthemum in full was an imperial device, not for private use, and the present chairman of the restaurant, Munehiro Hoshino, explains the design as a half chrysanthemum: the flower divided, the reference made, the impropriety avoided. No document survives to show that this reading came from the builders rather than from later custodians, so it is best taken as the house's own account.
At the north end of the hall are a toko alcove and shelving. Northeast of them the plan turns a corner room, small and finely finished, which the Agency describes in terms of its elegance. Local sources have called the upper suite the Kiku no Ma, the chrysanthemum room, and the building as a whole the Kiku no Yakata.
The Room Where a Novel Was Written
The shoin study attached to the upper floor is pointed out to visitors as the room in which Hiroyuki Itsuki wrote parts of Seishun no Mon, the long novel of a boy growing up in the Chikuho coalfield that became one of the defining Japanese works of its generation. The claim comes from the house rather than from a published record, and is repeated in broadcast coverage on that basis. Kawaradake, visible from the veranda a few steps away, appears in the book's landscape.
Access to the building today runs through the restaurant that occupies the compound, Ryotei Aogiri, which serves Chikuho kaiseki by reservation only. Rooms cannot be requested, and the guest house is not guaranteed to any particular booking; large parties of up to eighty use the great hall, while smaller groups from two people upward are seated in the ground-floor rooms or in the main house. Recent hours have been 11:00 to 14:00 and 17:00 to 22:00, closed Mondays, with seasonal courses starting near 7,260 yen. Confirm both when you call, and ask about photography, as other guests may be present.
The walk from JR Tagawa-Ita Station on the Hitahikosan Line takes about ten minutes, and the Nishitetsu bus stop at Sekitan Kinen Koen-guchi is two minutes away. Combining the visit with the Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Museum next to the park makes the building easier to read, since the museum sets out the industry that paid for the copper. Its Yamamoto Sakubei collection of colliery paintings entered UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2011.
A note on the record. Until 12 February 2019 this building was registered as the new wing of Ryotei Awogiri; the entry was then changed to the family name. The register gives the address as 3330-1 Shinmachi and others, a parcel number, against the restaurant's street address of 11-4 Shinmachi. Refurbishment is recorded as having taken place in the later Showa period, between 1966 and 1989.
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Q&A
- Why is the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House called the Akagane Goten?
- Akagane is an old word for copper, and goten means palace or mansion. The building's hip-and-gable roof is sheathed in copper plate rather than the tile used on the main house, which is unusual for a private residence of its date and gave the town its nickname for it.
- Can I see inside the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House?
- Only as a guest of Ryotei Aogiri, the reservation-only restaurant occupying the property. There is no separate admission, and rooms are assigned by the restaurant rather than chosen, so entry to this particular building is not guaranteed with any booking.
- What is the oriage go-tenjo ceiling in the Guest House's great hall?
- A coffered ceiling in which the outer band curves upward from the wall before the flat gridded field begins, raising the apparent height of the room. In Japanese building it marks a space of high formal rank, used in temple halls, castle audience rooms and the best rooms of large houses.
- When was the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House built and registered?
- Built in 1934, the ninth year of Showa, and refurbished between 1966 and 1989. It was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 January 2011, registration number 40-0068, in the same round as the main house.
- How do I get to the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House?
- It is about ten minutes on foot from JR Tagawa-Ita Station on the Hitahikosan Line, or two minutes from the Nishitetsu bus stop Sekitan Kinen Koen-guchi. Tagawa sits in central Fukuoka Prefecture, roughly ninety minutes from Hakata by train.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House (旧林田春次郎家住宅迎賓館) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3330-1 and others, Shinmachi, Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 40-0068, 69th round |
| Year Designated | 26 January 2011 (Heisei 23) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, two storeys, copper-plate roof, building area 124 m² |
| Owner | Privately held; no owner recorded in the national register entry |
| Public Access | In use by Ryotei Aogiri. Interior seen by restaurant guests with a reservation; room assignment at the restaurant's discretion; closed Mondays |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00008604
- Cultural Heritage Online: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Guest House
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/218740
- Tagawa City: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House and Guest House
- https://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp/kiji0033108/index.html
- Ryotei Aogiri, official site: guide page
- https://aogiri.info/guide
- Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting, Jimo Times: feature on Ryotei Aogiri (12 September 2025)
- https://kbc.co.jp/wish/article/43078/
Last verified: 2026.08.25