Oyamazaki Villa Former Garage (Kyoto Prefecture Rest House)

A Half-Timbered Garage

The Oyamazaki Villa Former Garage (Kyoto Prefecture Rest House) (大山崎山荘旧車庫（京都府休憩所）) is a half-timbered garage with decorative brickwork of the early Showa period in Oyamazaki, Oyamazaki Town, Otokuni District, Kyoto Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on July 23, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey reinforced-concrete and timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 61 square metres; registration number 26-0180.

A Garage with Rooms Above

Oyamazaki Villa, on the slopes of Mount Tenno in Oyamazaki, Kyoto Prefecture, was the country house of the Kansai businessman Kaga Shotaro (1888-1954); 6 structures built from the Taisho to the early Showa period, among them the main house, a tea room, a teahouse, a garage, a lookout tower and a tunnel, are registered (Agency for Cultural Affairs; museum).

The former garage, of the early Showa period, sets a timber upper floor projecting over a reinforced-concrete ground floor, under a gabled tiled roof with deep eaves and verges, entered from the gable end (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The ground floor was the garage, and the upper floor living rooms with 3 matted rooms and a boarded kitchen. The Agency notes its striking half-timbered exterior with decorative brickwork. It is now a rest house of Kyoto Prefecture.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as a model of design.

What to Look For

At the former garage, look for the half-timbering with decorative brick and the deep eaves (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The main building, the Saigetsuan tea room and the Tochinoki teahouse are owned by Asahi Group Japan, Ltd., and the former garage, the Seikaro tower and the Rokando tunnel by Kyoto Prefecture (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Asahi Group Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art, it opens from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.) and is closed on Mondays (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday), on occasional days and over the New Year; it is about 10 minutes on foot from JR Yamazaki and Hankyu Oyamazaki stations. The 6 structures are introduced together on the Oyamazaki Villa page.