Gotokuan Annex

What Is the Gotokuan Annex?

The Gotokuan Annex (五徳庵離れ, Gotoku-an Hanare) is a single-story wooden detached room built in 1919 in Daishoji Nishikicho, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on February 9, 2005. It holds one six-mat room, and at 16 square meters it is the smallest of the four structures at Gotokuan.

The Gotokuan plot turns east at its northern end, and the annex sits tucked away in the eastern part of the compound.

A Metal Roof Ringed by Tiles

The main body of the Gotokuan Annex has a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof of sheet metal. On three sides, east, south and west, runs a lower Geya lean-to roofed in Sangawara-buki tiles. That is why the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the roofing as both metal and tile.

Seen from outside, the low tiled eaves wrap around the small central block, giving the building a two-tier roofline out of proportion to its single room.

One Room, Carefully Finished

Inside is a single six-mat room. The Agency notes thoughtful design in the Tokonoma alcove, the shelves and the ceiling. Rather than adding rooms, the builders concentrated their effort in one, which suggests a space for receiving guests or for leisure rather than daily living.

Wide openings face the north garden. A north-facing room gets little direct sun, and from inside one looks out at the garden in its best light.

It sits at the back, away from the street. This is the quietest corner of the house.

Why the Gotokuan Annex Was Registered

The Gotokuan Annex was registered, as number 17-0126, under the criterion for buildings that serve as models of design. The Agency cites it as an example of a Taisho-era detached room in the sukiya manner, the refined, tea-house-influenced style of Japanese domestic architecture.

The 1900 main house carries on the samurai-house plan; the annex, added about twenty years later, reflects the sukiya taste of the Taisho years. Standing in the same compound, the two show how the interests of a household shifted in a single generation.

Seeing the Gotokuan Annex

Because the Gotokuan Annex stands deep inside the plot, beyond the main house and warehouse, it is probably hard to see from the road. We could find no official information on interior viewing.

Please do not enter the grounds. Directions to the compound are on the Gotokuan page.