The pavilion the second master added
Tsuijisai, sometimes read Taijisai, is the latest and most spacious of the five buildings, and the only one raised by the garden’s second owner. When Masuda Don’o passed the garden to Hara Tomitaro, the Yokohama silk magnate and art collector known by the tea name Sankei, in 1922, Sankei built this room to the east of Hakuun-do. The Agency for Cultural Affairs record notes that it is said to have been built after the villa changed hands.
It is joined to the rest of the garden by a covered corridor (watari-roka) running through the waiting pavilion. A main room of eight mats with a cut hearth, a four-mat annexe and a mizuya sit under a shingled (kokera-buki) roof, the floor area about 44 square metres, the largest of the group.
Built into the slope
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered Tsuijisai on 20 November 2001. Where the older tea huts hug the ground, this one meets a steep site head-on. The eastern part stands on a kake-zukuri frame, a scaffold of posts that carries the floor out over the falling ground, the same technique used for temple halls perched on hillsides. Broad verandas (hiroen) wrap the east and south sides in an L, so the outline shifts as you walk around it.
The name points outward. From the front veranda the eye reaches the giant character “dai” (great) traced on the flank of a nearby peak, lit each summer during the Daimonji fire festival. The plaque reading Tsuijisai over the room was brushed by Don’o himself, so the founder’s hand remained in the garden even after he had given it away.
What to look for on a visit
Stand on the east veranda and the logic of the building becomes plain: the raised floor, the posts dropping into the slope, the framed view across the valley to the mountain. This is architecture arranged around a single sightline.
Tsuijisai is seen as part of the garden circuit inside Hakone Gora Park. Read alongside Hakuun-do and Fusen-an, it shows how a later master worked in dialogue with an inherited garden, keeping the rustic key while adding height, scale and a deliberate view.
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Q&A
- Who built Tsuijisai?
- Hara Sankei, the second owner of the garden, is credited with raising it around 1922, after Masuda Don’o passed the garden to him.
- Is it Taijisai or Tsuijisai?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs record gives the reading Tsuijisai; many guides render it Taijisai. Both point to the same building.
- What is the view from the veranda?
- The front veranda faces the great character “dai” on a nearby mountainside, lit during the Daimonji festival; the room is named for this outlook.
- What does kake-zukuri mean?
- It is a construction method in which a raised floor is carried out over sloping ground on a frame of tall posts, seen here on the eastern, downhill side.
Basic Information
| Name | Hakuundo Chaen Tsuijisai (白雲洞茶苑対字斎) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1300-69 Gora, Hakone-machi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa (inside Hakone Gora Park) |
| Status | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building); register no. 14-0065 |
| Registered | 20 November 2001 (gazetted 4 December 2001) |
| Date | 1922 (Taisho 11) |
| Structure | One-storey timber, shingled (kokera-buki) roof, part kake-zukuri; floor area about 44 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） — 白雲洞茶苑対字斎
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002533
- 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