A Reading Room That Was Also a Home
The Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room (齋藤子爵水沢文庫図書閲覧所, Saitō Shishaku Mizusawa Bunko Tosho Etsuranjo) is a single-storey timber reading room built in 1932 in Kichikoji, Mizusawa, Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on October 14, 2021 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
It belongs to the private library that Saito Makoto (斎藤實), Japan's 30th Prime Minister, built on the site of his birthplace, and it did two jobs: a place for local people to read, and a house for Saito when he came home. The Agency records a roof of pantiles and a building area of 188 square metres; registration number 03-0112. The building stands in the grounds of the Oshu City Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, where it is called the former residence (旧宅).
Stepped Roofs and a South-Facing Reading Room
A covered passage joins the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room to the book stack on its west. Hipped roofs in the Yosemune-zukuri form overlap in a stepped, echelon plan, and the entrance at the south-west corner sits under a hip-and-gable roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each roof is set back a little from the last, and the overlap is easiest to read from the garden side.
Indoors there is a Western-style room and a suite of connecting tatami rooms, with the reading room, lined with glazed windows, along their south side (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The memorial hall explains that the Japanese rooms on the south doubled as the reading room, while the Western-style room on the north was where Saito slept on visits home. That room has a boarded floor and served as study and bedroom. The Japanese rooms run 3 in a row, the middle one, of 10 mats, being the largest.
The house has its own kitchen and bath as well (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The bathroom keeps a goemon-buro, a flat-bottomed iron tub heated directly by a fire beneath, and beside it a small cauldron for heating washing water.
Why It Was Registered
The Agency registered the building under the criterion for structures that serve as a model of design, and its note records that the reading room was meant for the use of young people in Saito's native district.
For the Oshu City Board of Education, whose facility plan covers the site, having a reading room open to townspeople alongside the stack is the defining feature of the library. A ridge tag kept in the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room shows that the framing ceremony took place on July 30, 1932.
Home to the Saitos
Saito called in October 1932 on his first trip home as Prime Minister, the memorial hall records, and stayed for about 20 days in August 1935. He did not return.
The person who really lived in the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room was his wife, Haruko. Evacuated from Tokyo in March 1945, she stayed on in Mizusawa after the war and remained in the house until she died in 1971, aged 99. The kitchen, bathroom and corridor were repaired in 1983.
What to Look For
In the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room, begin with the run of glass along the south side. These windows were there to light the reading room, and they turn the edge of the tatami rooms into a place to sit with a book.
The corridor looks out over the garden. As the memorial hall describes it, planting is arranged around a gourd-shaped pond, with azaleas, roses, a persimmon and a Tama-ibuki juniper close to the veranda. The Western-style room has a garden view too. Examples of Saito's calligraphy are displayed inside.
Visiting
The Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room is open as part of the Saito Makoto Memorial Hall and is covered by the hall's admission fee. The hall's website does not state its rules on photography, so ask at the desk.
Opening hours, closing days and directions from Mizusawa Station are set out on the page for the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library.
Q&A
- When was the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room built?
- In 1932 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A ridge tag dates the framing ceremony to July 30 of that year (Oshu City Board of Education).
- Can I visit the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room?
- Yes. It is open as part of the Oshu City Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on Mondays; adult admission is 200 yen.
- Why is the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room called the former residence?
- Besides the reading room it has a Western-style room, a kitchen and a bath, and Saito Makoto stayed there when he came home. His wife Haruko lived in it after 1945 (memorial hall).
- What should I look for at the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room?
- The stepped hipped roofs, the reading room with its row of glazed windows on the south side, and the view over the pond garden.
- How is the Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room connected to the book stack?
- It stands east of the stack and the two are joined by a covered passage (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Basic Information
| Name | Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room (齋藤子爵水沢文庫図書閲覧所) |
|---|---|
| Location | 24-I Kichikoji, Mizusawa, Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2021/10/14 (Reiwa 3) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, single-storey, tile roof, building area 188 m² |
| Owner | Oshu City |
| Public Access | Open as part of the Saito Makoto Memorial Hall (closed Mondays) |
References
- Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013910
- Viscount Saito Mizusawa Library Reading Room (Cultural Heritage Online, Japanese)
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/591910
- About the former residence (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1/1/1631.html
- Libraries and Saito Makoto (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/shogai/1621.html
- The 10-mat room of the former residence (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1/1/1633.html
- The boarded floor of the Western-style room (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1/1/1630.html
- The goemon-buro bath (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1/1/1777.html
- The garden seen from the corridor (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1/1/1778.html
- History of the memorial hall (Oshu City, Saito Makoto Memorial Hall, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/makoto/annai/1780.html
- Facility plan for historic buildings (Oshu City Board of Education, Japanese)
- https://www.city.oshu.iwate.jp/material/files/group/3/28368.pdf
Last verified: 2026.11.11
