What tsuzukima means
Tsuzukima describes two or more tatami reception rooms set in a row and separated by sliding partitions. With the partitions removed they become one large room; with them closed, each is a room of its own. Records often say tsuzukima zashiki, connected reception rooms.
The typical pair is a principal room with a tokonoma alcove and a built-in writing desk, and an anteroom in front of it. In the south wing of the former Daitoku kimono shop in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, from the early Meiji period, the ground floor has connected rooms of eight and six mats and the upper floor a further suite of three, with a full shoin-style reception room.
Because the arrangement grew up for receiving guests, it is common in the formal end of a main house, in detached reception wings and in inn rooms. Wing 81 of the Hanaya Hotel in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, from around 1920, has two guest suites of connected rooms with alcoves, and the annex of Mukaitaki in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, from the early Taisho period, has connected rooms with alcove and staggered shelves in the shoin manner.
What to look for
Where rooms are divided by fusuma or shoji rather than walls, with a transom running above, they are usually used as connected rooms. The room with the alcove sits at the inner, senior end, and rank rises from the entrance side inward.
Connected rooms occur within farmhouse plans such as the four-room and six-room layouts. Those terms describe the number and arrangement of rooms; tsuzukima describes how the reception rooms connect.
Use the term where the record does, and give the mat counts and alcove arrangement if they are recorded.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Former Daitoku Kimono Shop, South Wing
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011051
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Hanaya Hotel Wing 81
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00005879
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Mukaitaki Annex
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00000022
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Sakai Family Residence New Reception Wing
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00015439
Last verified: 2026.10.04