Ryotei Masa

What is Ryotei Masa?

Ryotei Masa (料亭満佐, Ryōtei Masa) is a traditional ryotei restaurant in Nakasu, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City, founded in 1894, and five of its structures built from 1954 onward, the main house, kitchen wing, new wing, detached wing, and front gate and wall, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on September 10, 2019.

A ryotei is a high-end Japanese restaurant where each party dines in its own tatami room, usually overlooking a garden. The house also calls itself Hakata Ryotei Masa and describes itself as the oldest ryotei in Hakata. The Agency for Cultural Affairs, in its report recommending registration, likewise introduces Ryotei Masa as a ryotei in a corner of Nakasu founded in 1894 (Meiji 27).

Nakasu is the island between the Naka and Hakata rivers, and one of Kyushu's busiest nightlife districts. Ryotei Masa occupies a site toward its southern end, on the Naka River in Nakasu 1-chome. A high wall surrounds the grounds and keeps the dining rooms apart from the streets just outside.

A ryotei in the new sukiya manner

The Agency's verdict on Ryotei Masa is that it is a ryotei of fine quality in the shinkō sukiya, or new sukiya, manner. New sukiya was the approach of the architect Yoshida Isoya (1894 to 1974), who set out to adapt traditional Sukiya-zukuri to modern life. Fukuoka City lists its hallmarks as Ōkabe walls that hide the posts, the omission of Ranma transoms and hanging struts, and the use of factory-made materials.

Plastering the posts inside the wall reversed the sukiya habit of leaving them exposed, and it gives rooms clean, uninterrupted surfaces. At Ryotei Masa the outer walls of the main house are finished in jūraku clay over okabe construction, the living rooms and reception room of the kitchen wing are okabe as well, and the new wing and kitchen wing have fittings with horizontal bars only and ceilings with recessed lighting.

The sources part ways on the architect. The restaurant presents the buildings as designed by Yoshida Isoya himself. The Agency, however, says only that techniques in the Yoshida Isoya manner can be seen in the kitchen wing, and it names no designer. Fukuoka City mentions Yoshida only to explain what new sukiya means. This page therefore describes Ryotei Masa as a new sukiya building in Yoshida's manner and leaves the question of authorship open.

The five registered structures of Ryotei Masa

• Main house (registration no. 40-0159): 1954. Two-story timber building, tiled roof, building area 236 square meters
• Detached wing (no. 40-0160): 1954, extended in the Showa 30s (1955 to 1964). One-story timber building, tiled roof, building area 49 square meters
• Kitchen wing (no. 40-0161): 1954. Two-story timber building, tiled roof, building area 140 square meters
• New wing (no. 40-0162): 1961. One-story timber building, tiled roof, building area 121 square meters
• Front gate and wall (no. 40-0163): 1954. Timber gate with a tiled roof and a frontage of 2.2 meters; reinforced concrete wall with tile capping, 107 meters in total length, with a service gate

All five were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers. The gate and wall were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country, and the four buildings as models of design. According to Fukuoka City, the site covers about 1,400 square meters.

Read together, the Agency's descriptions give the layout of Ryotei Masa. The main house stands on the west side of the site facing the Naka River, with the kitchen wing joined to its rear. A connecting corridor leads east from the main house to the new wing, and the detached wing stands on its own to the southeast. The wall closes the east, west and north sides, and the front gate opens in the north part of the west wall, on the river side. Guests come in through that gate and step up into the main house at the entrance on the north end of its front.

Visiting Ryotei Masa

Ryotei Masa is still a working restaurant and is not opened to the public as a heritage site. The only way to see the interiors is to dine there. According to the restaurant, it takes reservations only, first-time guests need an introduction from an existing patron, and it closes on irregular days. Nobody without a booking may enter the grounds.

The street address is 1-8-25 Nakasu, Hakata-ku. The restaurant puts it about 5 minutes on foot from Nakasu-Kawabata Station on the Fukuoka City Subway. The wall and front gate can be seen from outside. There is no official guidance on photography, so avoid catching guests or staff coming and going.