Sumiya

The Only Surviving Ageya of Shimabara

The Sumiya (角屋) is an ageya, a house for banquets and entertainment, in Shimabara, Nishishinyashiki Ageya-cho, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, whose main house was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1952; its Taisho-period Matsu-no-ma wing was registered in 2012 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the Sumiya Preservation Society as owner.

The preservation society explains that the family has kept the building and the business since Shimabara was founded, and that it was designated as the only surviving ageya, a place of Edo-period banquets and hospitality.

What Was an Ageya?

According to the preservation society, Edo-period writings define an ageya as a business of entertaining guests, the equivalent of today's ryotei restaurants. As places for banquets, they always had a tea room on the garden facing the great reception room and a kitchen as large as a temple's.

The Agency calls Sumiya the leading ageya of Shimabara; besides the main house, the Kyokubokutei pavilion, a tea room, a waiting room and three storehouses are designated with it. The garden is well preserved and keeps the look of former times.

The Main House and the Matsu-no-ma

The Agency records the main house as late Edo, with the Ajiro room and kitchen on the ground floor.

The Matsu-no-ma is a Taisho-period single-storey wing on the north of the west side of the main house, hip-and-gable and pantiled with metal-roofed eaves. From the main house, a ten-mat entrance room and twelve- and eight-mat anterooms lead in echelon to a twenty-three-mat great hall, with a veranda on the south. The Agency describes it as a shoin in modern taste with high ceilings.

The preservation society notes that the Sumiya's screens of red and white plum by Buson were designated an Important Cultural Property in 1983.

Visiting Sumiya

The preservation society has opened the building and its collection as the Sumiya Hospitality Culture Museum since fiscal 1998. It opens for limited seasons; the current season runs from 18 September to 13 December, Fridays to Sundays and holidays, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (last admission).

Admission to the ground floor and exhibition room is 1,000 yen for adults, 800 yen for secondary students and 500 yen for primary pupils. The upstairs rooms are shown by reservation for an additional 1,000 yen (700 yen for secondary students). To protect the building, both floors are shown on guided tours at set times; check details with the preservation society.