Nagaoki Kongo

A Shipowner's Guest Wing at Nagaoki

Nagaoki Kongo (長沖金剛) is a detached guest wing of the early Showa era in Ataka-machi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 17, 2015 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kongō is the name of the wing; it is one of the dining rooms of the restaurant Nagaoki.

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 95 square metres, moved to its present site in 1946; registration number 17-0251.

From the Matsumura Family to Nagaoki

Nagaoki Kongo was built in the early Showa era as a detached wing of the Matsumura family, shipping agents in Ataka (Komatsu City). In the Meiji era the Matsumura were the largest shipowners at the port of Ataka, and they kept this wing for honoured guests; the politician Nagai Ryutaro and the poets Yosano Tekkan and Yosano Akiko are said to have stayed here.

Nagaoki bought the wing in 1946 and moved it to its present site east of the restaurant's main house (Komatsu City). The city history office names Eijiro, the second proprietor, as the buyer.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered Nagaoki Kongo as a model of design, citing the hip-and-gable single-storey wing with three rooms in a row along a broad veranda, its fine timber such as the wide ceiling boards, and the red earthen walls typical of Kaga.

Komatsu City describes Nagaoki Kongo as a guest wing built with wealth the largest shipping house of Ataka earned in the kitamaebune trade, and as evidence of the skill of its builders and the prosperity of the port. When Komatsu joined the Japan Heritage story of kitamaebune ports and shipowners' villages in 2018, Ishikawa Prefecture listed it among the city's related properties.

What to Look For

According to Komatsu City, the rooms of Nagaoki Kongo run in a single row from west to east: 5 mats, 10 mats and a principal room of 15 mats, with a broad veranda on the south side overlooking the garden. The Agency gives the principal room as 16 mats, so the sources differ on its size.

Posts and beams are of hinoki cypress, the posts and ceilings are lacquered, and the shoji lattices are kept plain (Komatsu City). Look for the way the red earthen walls, recorded as vermilion walls by the city history office, set off the sheen of the lacquer, and step onto the veranda to see the three rooms open up in a line.

Visiting

Nagaoki Kongo is in use as a dining room of the working restaurant Nagaoki (Komatsu City). The interior can only be seen as a restaurant guest; no official information was found on whether the Kongo room can be requested or whether visits without a meal are accepted, so ask the restaurant about reservations and photography.