The gateway to the tea garden
The yoritsuki is the building guests reach first, at the very head of the garden path. In tea usage a yoritsuki is the waiting shelter where guests gather and compose themselves before being led to the tea room, and this one serves that role for the whole Hakuundo Chaen. It belongs to the early Taisho garden, built somewhere between 1912 and the mid-1920s, that Masuda Don’o laid out in Gora.
The plan is small and irregular: a four-and-a-half-mat room with its southeast corner cut away, and a two-mat inner room. A shingled (kokera-buki) roof covers a floor area of about 20 square metres.
An inventive corner
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the yoritsuki on 20 November 2001. The building’s interest lies in that missing corner. Rather than square the plan off, the builder pulled the southeast corner back on the diagonal and turned the gap into a display of carpentry.
A curved log serves as the beam across the opening, and small logs are set out from it in a fan, splaying like the ribs of an open sensu, to form a decorative eave (kesho-noki) that is left exposed to view. It is a neat, sharp piece of design, closer to a showpiece than to the plain shelters yoritsuki often are, and it sets the tone for the garden that follows.
What to look for on a visit
Pause at the cut corner before you go on. Look up under the eave and follow the fan of small rafters spreading from the curved beam; it is the kind of detail a carpenter builds to be noticed. The building rewards a moment’s attention that most visitors, keen to reach the tea rooms, do not give it.
The yoritsuki also ties the garden together physically. A covered corridor links it to Tsuijisai, and a steep stair drops from it to the bathhouse below, so the small waiting room sits at the hinge of the whole plan inside Hakone Gora Park.
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Q&A
- What is a yoritsuki?
- It is a waiting shelter where tea guests gather before entering the tea room. This one serves the whole Hakuundo Chaen and stands at the head of the garden path.
- What makes this building unusual?
- Its southeast corner is cut away on the diagonal, and the opening is spanned by a curved log with small rafters fanning out to form an exposed decorative eave.
- When was it built?
- In the early Taisho era, dated on the register between 1912 and the mid-1920s, as part of Masuda Don’o’s original garden.
- How does it connect to the other buildings?
- A covered corridor links it to Tsuijisai, and a steep stair descends from it to the bathhouse, Hakurokuto, below.
Basic Information
| Name | Hakuundo Chaen Yoritsuki (白雲洞茶苑寄付) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1300-69 Gora, Hakone-machi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa (inside Hakone Gora Park) |
| Status | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building); register no. 14-0063 |
| Registered | 20 November 2001 (gazetted 4 December 2001) |
| Date | Early Taisho era (about 1912-1925) |
| Structure | One-storey timber, shingled (kokera-buki) roof; floor area about 20 sq m |
| Owner | Odakyu Hakone Co., Ltd. |
| Access | About 5 min on foot from Gora Station, within Hakone Gora Park |
References
- 国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁） — 白雲洞茶苑寄付
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002531
- 箱根強羅公園 — 白雲洞茶苑
- https://www.hakonenavi.jp/gorapark/map/tea/
- 箱根強羅公園 — 登録有形文化財でお抽茶を
- https://www.hakonenavi.jp/gorapark/info/3698/
Last verified: 2026.07.09