Oyamazaki Villa Seikaro Lookout Tower

A Playful Lookout Tower of 1915

The Oyamazaki Villa Seikaro Lookout Tower (大山崎山荘栖霞楼（物見塔）) is a playful lookout tower with openings of many shapes of 1915 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 three-storey timber tower with an iron-sheet roof and a building area of 12 square metres; registration number 26-0179.

A Small Tower of Many Openings

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 Seikaro lookout tower, of 1915, stands facing south on high ground at the back of the site (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A small rectangular tower about 3 metres by 4, it rises 3 storeys in timber under a steep gabled iron-sheet roof.

Round and arched doorways below, tall windows on the second floor's south side and wide windows in the third-floor lookout room give it openings of many kinds. The Agency calls it a building full of playfulness.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For

At the Seikaro tower, look for the round and arched doorways and the wide windows of the top-floor lookout room (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.