The Yunoshimakan Main Building
The Yunoshimakan Main Building (湯之島館本館, Yunoshima-kan Honkan) is a three-storey timber guest wing completed in 1931 at the centre of the Yunoshimakan inn in Yunoshima, Gero City, Gifu Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010.
It has an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles and a building area of 462 square metres. It stands on a south-facing slope, with the connecting corridor attached to its west side leading on to the entrance building. It is the largest of the three registered buildings, and its rooms still take guests.
The inn describes the Yunoshimakan Main Building as the work of four years. That figure appears to count from the start of planning in 1927; the inn's own history gives October 1929 for the start of construction and November 1931 for completion.
A Plan Registered as a Model of Design
The Yunoshimakan Main Building was registered as a model of design, under register number 21-0177. The entrance and corridor were registered for their place in the landscape; here it was the architecture itself that earned the listing.
The plan is organised around a Naka-roka, a corridor running down the middle of each floor. Guest rooms line the west and south sides, while toilets, dining rooms and other services sit to the north and east. The rooms get the view; the services take the back.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs pays particular attention to the south side. There the rooms are staggered in echelon, each set slightly forward or back from its neighbour, and the windows run on continuously to open the building up to the view. Staggering the rooms lets each one turn its windows towards the valley below.
The interior is described as of high quality, with Japanese detailing refined to a high degree. According to the inn, the guest rooms of the Yunoshimakan Main Building are in Sukiya-zukuri style with choice timbers throughout, and they keep details that master carpenters worked out on site, at a time when detailed interior drawings were not yet the norm.
The Staggered South Front and the Third-Floor Lookout
From outside, look at the staggered south front of the Yunoshimakan Main Building. The rooms step forward and back, and the band of windows folds as it runs along. Rather than one flat face, the building presents a corner for every room.
There is an observation deck on the third floor, and the inn's English site suggests heading up there as soon as you have left your bags in your room. The inn stands higher than any other in Gero Onsen, and from the deck you look down over the hot spring town.
Among the special rooms the inn lists in the main building is Nanae Yae no Ma, a 31-mat principal room with an anteroom, where Emperor Showa and Empress Kojun stayed in the autumn of 1958. Kumoi no Ma, also in the main building, is remembered as the room where the present Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita, then Crown Prince and Crown Princess, dined in the summer of 1976.
The inn is also candid that sound insulation in the ordinary main-building rooms is as it was when they were built, and that you may hear your neighbours. That is the other side of rooms that have not been brought wholly up to modern standards and still keep their early Showa construction.
Seeing the Yunoshimakan Main Building
The surest way into the Yunoshimakan Main Building is to stay. The inn sells its rooms as a distinct category, the cultural property main building, so you can spend the night inside the registered structure. The third-floor observation deck is open to you during your stay.
To see the building as a whole, look down on it from higher ground. The inn notes that rooms in Keizanso, its highest wing, look out over the roof structure of the Yunoshimakan Main Building. From in front of the entrance, the three storeys of the main building rise behind the entrance roofs.
Rooms and corridors are shared with other guests, so keep photographs to the spots on the inn's Yunoshimakan Meguri route and to your own room. Directions and the terms of the day plans are on the Yunoshimakan page.
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Q&A
- Can I stay in the Yunoshimakan Main Building?
- Yes. Yunoshimakan takes bookings for rooms in the Yunoshimakan Main Building as a separate room category. Check availability and rates on the inn's official website or by phone on 0576-25-4126, between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
- When was the Yunoshimakan Main Building built and registered?
- Construction of the Yunoshimakan Main Building began in October 1929 and was completed in November 1931. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010, together with the entrance and the connecting corridor, under register number 21-0177.
- How is the Yunoshimakan Main Building laid out?
- It is a three-storey timber building with a central corridor. Guest rooms face west and south, and toilets, dining rooms and services are to the north and east. On the south side the rooms are staggered for the view, with continuous windows.
- Where is the observation deck in the Yunoshimakan Main Building?
- It is on the third floor of the Yunoshimakan Main Building. Since the inn stands higher than any other in Gero Onsen, the deck looks down over the hot spring town.
- Does the Yunoshimakan Main Building have rooms associated with the Imperial family?
- Emperor Showa and Empress Kojun stayed in Nanae Yae no Ma in the autumn of 1958, and the present Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita, then Crown Prince and Crown Princess, are said to have dined in Kumoi no Ma in the summer of 1976. The inn lists both as special rooms in the main building.
Basic Information
| Name | Yunoshimakan Main Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 625 Hiraiwa, Yunoshima, Gero City, Gifu Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2010 (Heisei 22) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 462 square metres, timber, 3 storeys |
| Owner | Not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database (operated by Hidagawa Onsen Tochi Co., Ltd.) |
| Public Access | Guest wing of a working ryokan; interior used by overnight guests |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Yunoshimakan Main Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007998
- Cultural Heritage Online: Yunoshimakan Main Building
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/212570
- Yunoshimakan: History (Japanese)
- https://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/about-history
- Yunoshimakan: Rooms (Japanese)
- https://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/rooms
- Yunoshimakan: English site
- https://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/en/
- Yunoshimakan: Yunoshimakan Meguri (Japanese)
- https://www.yunoshimakan.co.jp/tour
- Yunoshimakan: Day plan booking page with Keizanso room description (Japanese)
- https://reserve.489ban.net/client/yunoshimakan/0/detail/539582
Last verified: 2026.09.24
