Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence)

A Count's Kyoto Villa on Mount Yoshida

Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence, 吉田山荘（旧東伏見家住宅）) is a villa built in 1932 for Count Higashifushimi Kunihide in Yoshida Shimoojicho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, and six of its buildings were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 13, 2012. The estate now operates as a ryokan and kaiseki restaurant run by Yoshida Sanso Co., Ltd.

The grounds sit partway down the southern flank of Mount Yoshida, a low wooded hill counted among the thirty-six peaks of Kyoto's Higashiyama range. Kyoto University's main campus spreads along the hill's western foot. Yoshida Sanso faces the other way, down the eastern slope toward the Jodoji and Shinnyo-cho neighborhoods, and its east boundary runs along a narrow residential lane.

The client was Count Higashifushimi Kunihide, a younger brother of Empress Kōjun, which is why the ryokan introduces him as the brother-in-law of Emperor Shōwa. According to a KBS Kyoto television feature, Kunihide studied at Kyoto University and later taught there, and the villa was his home for those years. The hill put the house back to back with the campus.

After the Second World War the house became a ryokan with its exteriors largely intact. The Main Building took on guest rooms and banquet rooms, and the garage where the family kept its car became Cafe Shinkokan. All six registered buildings still wear the faces they were given as a private residence in the early Shōwa era.

One Place, Two Names

The official registered name reads Yoshida Sanso (Kyū Higashifushimi-ke Jūtaku), literally the former residence of the Higashifushimi family. The ryokan and the Kyoto City Tourism Association describe it instead as a villa of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, the princely house. The difference is one character, 宮 (miya). The client held the rank of count rather than prince when the house went up, and the registered name appears to reflect that. Both names refer to the same group of buildings.

Yoshida Sanso is the ryokan's trade name. Sanso means a mountain retreat, and the business uses the spelling Yoshida Sanso on its English website, the form used here.

Six Buildings, Two Registration Criteria

The six buildings carry consecutive registration numbers, 26-0397 through 26-0402, all entered at the 73rd round of registrations. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Main Building to 1932 and the Front Gate, Former Gatekeeper's Lodge, Former Garage, North Storehouse and South Storehouse to around 1932, so the whole estate was laid out in a single campaign.

The registration splits them into two groups. The Main Building alone qualified as a model of architectural form, recognized as a fine modern Japanese-style residence that mixes tatami rooms with stained glass and a Western-style veranda. The other five were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape, as parts of the compound that frames the house.

Read the list and you can see what a household of this rank needed in 1932: a formal gate with curved karahafu gables, a lodge beside it for the gatekeeper, two fireproof storehouses in the Dozo-zukuri manner, and a garage. Among the Japanese-style gate, house and storehouses, the garage is the only Western-style building, with a gambrel roof and dormer windows. A car of one's own was a mark of status in the early Shōwa years, and the compound makes room for one.

Sources disagree on the registration date. The ryokan's website gives April 20, 2012. The Agency's database lists both the registration date and the date of official notice as August 13, 2012, and this site follows the database.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The entrance is at the southern end of the east boundary. The Front Gate opens onto the lane, and immediately south of it the Former Gatekeeper's Lodge stands on a stone-faced plinth with its lattice window turned toward the street. These two are the only registered buildings visible from outside.

Beyond the gate the Main Building presents its entrance to the east. Its rooms line the south side of a central corridor, so every guest room looks onto the garden to the south. The garden is planted with cherry for spring and satsuki and other azaleas for early summer, and the ryokan notes that Mount Daimonji, the hill lit with a giant bonfire character each August, is in clear view from here.

West of the Main Building, in the northwest corner of the site, the North Storehouse and South Storehouse stand in a north-south line, joined to the house's west side by a corridor. The Former Garage occupies the northeast corner. Cars once went in through its west gable end, and it is the one building on the grounds that looks Western.

Visiting and Getting There

Yoshida Sanso is a working ryokan, not a sightseeing venue, and the grounds are not open to casual visitors. Getting inside means staying the night, booking a lunch or dinner kaiseki meal, or reserving a table at Cafe Shinkokan. All three require reservations; the telephone number is 075-771-6125. Concerts and tea gatherings are sometimes held in the garden.

Without a booking, what you can see is the exterior of the Front Gate and the Former Gatekeeper's Lodge from the lane on the east side. It is a narrow residential street, so step aside for passing traffic if you stop to look. No published rules on photography within the grounds could be found, so ask the staff when you visit.

The Kyoto City Tourism Association gives two routes. Take Kyoto City Bus route 5 or 7 to the Ginkakuji-michi stop and walk about 10 minutes, or take a taxi from Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan line, a ride of about 10 minutes. Yoshida Sanso has no parking for visitors and asks drivers to use coin parking nearby; the lots it names are around Shinnyo-do temple, just to the east.