A Small Tea Room Joined to the House
The Former Fukui Family Residence Tea Room (旧福井家住宅茶室) is a tea room of 1928 in Higashitsuchidocho, Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 28 square metres; registration number 34-0063.
A Tea Room Attached to the Main House
The tea room is attached to the northwest corner of the west wing of the main house (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is small, a four-and-a-half-mat tea room with a waiting room across a corridor, under a pantiled roof.
The east wing of the main house dates from 1912 and the west wing from 1927; the tea room was added the following year (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Why It Was Registered
The Agency notes that, like the main house, it is refined and carefully built of good timber, and that it shows something of the taste for tea rooms in modern Onomichi; it was registered as a model of design.
What to Look For
Look for the compact plan, a four-and-a-half-mat tea room with a waiting room across the corridor (Agency for Cultural Affairs), and for the way it opens off the main house with the same good timber.
Visiting
The residence served as Onomichi City's Literature Memorial Room, which closed at the end of March 2020 (paper in the research reports of the Chugoku Chapter of the Architectural Institute of Japan). No official notice of the interior reopening has been found since.
Q&A
- When was the tea room built?
- In 1928 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
- What is the layout of the tea room?
- A four-and-a-half-mat tea room with a waiting room across a corridor.
- Where is the tea room?
- Attached to the northwest corner of the west wing of the main house.
- Can I visit the tea room?
- The Literature Memorial Room closed at the end of March 2020, and no notice of reopening has been found.
- When was the Former Fukui Family Residence Tea Room registered?
- On November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Basic Information
| Name | Former Fukui Family Residence Tea Room (旧福井家住宅茶室) |
|---|---|
| Location | 163-1 Higashitsuchidocho and others, Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2004/11/08 (Heisei 16) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber, tiled roof, 28 m² |
| Owner | Not listed in the Agency database |
| Public Access | Literature Memorial Room closed in 2020 (no notice of reopening) |
References
- Former Fukui Family Residence Tea Room (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004412
- Shimakawa Daigo and Tanikawa Daisuke, research on the former residence of Shiga Naoya in Onomichi (Architectural Institute of Japan, Chugoku Chapter research reports, vol. 48, Japanese)
- https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aijchugoku/48/0/48_845/_pdf/-char/ja
Last verified: 2026.10.20
