Sanada Family Residence Tea House

A Six-Mat Tea Room off the Reception Wing

The Sanada Family Residence Tea House (眞田家住宅茶室, Sanada-ke Jūtaku Chashitsu) is a small Chashitsu built in 1928 and linked by a corridor to the north side of the inner reception wing in the Sanada compound, Higashimachi, Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture; it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) on 4 February 2021. With a building area of 36 square meters, it is the smallest building in the compound.

The roof is tiled in Sangawara-buki pantiles, and its two ends take different forms: hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) on the west, facing the garden, and plain gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) on the east. A Mizuya preparation room with its own gabled roof extends to the north, and a copper-roofed canopy along the west side shelters a waiting bench. Inside is a six-mat room with the host's place on the north, the alcove on the east, and on the south the nijiri-guchi, the low crawl-through entrance used by guests.

Why It Was Registered

The Sanada Family Residence Tea House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes how its roofs and canopy give the exterior a varied outline.

Its placement matters too. In 1928 the family built the reception wing, guest house and tea house together, and the tea house is not a detached garden pavilion: guests reach it along a corridor from the formal rooms. Moving from dinner to the tea ceremony without leaving the roofline, the plan shows how tea was woven into a merchant family's hospitality.

Roofs and Canopy

Walk around the Sanada Family Residence Tea House in your mind and the roof changes at every side. From the garden, on the west, you see the triangular gable of the hip-and-gable end. The east end is cut off cleanly as a plain gable. The preparation room adds a separate gable to the north, and on the west the copper canopy runs out beneath the tiles as a second, lower line.

Tile and copper, hip-and-gable and plain gable: that layering over such a small footprint is what the national description means by a varied exterior.

The six-mat interior follows the logic of the ceremony. A guest ducks through the low south entrance, finds the alcove to the right on the east wall, and faces the host's place on the north. The preparation room sits directly behind the host, where it needs to be.

Visiting

The Sanada Family Residence Tea House lies at the back of the compound, north of the reception wing, and cannot be seen from the old Sanyo Road. It is private, the interior is closed, and as of September 2026 we found no tea gatherings or other openings announced.

The national database carries photographs of the exterior and the interior, supplied by the Mihara City Board of Education, which show the layered roofs and the six-mat room. Directions and general visiting notes are on the Sanada Family Residence page.