Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence) Former Garage

One Western-Style Building on a Japanese Estate

The Yoshida Sanso (Former Higashifushimi Family Residence) Former Garage is a 2-storey timber garage of around 1932 in the northeast corner of the Yoshida Sanso estate in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012. It sheltered the family car at the Higashifushimi villa and now houses the ryokan's Cafe Shinkokan.

The building measures 7.4 meters by 6 meters, with a building area of 45 square meters. Its gambrel roof is covered in French tiles, and dormer windows cut up through both slopes to light the upper floor. The walls are rendered in mortar, with a base of Araidashi mortar showing its aggregate.

Cars went in through the west gable end. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the building as dating from around 1932 with renovation in 2008.

Why It Was Registered: A Deliberate Contrast

The Former Garage at Yoshida Sanso was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency's commentary describes it as a Western-style building standing in contrast to the Japanese-style buildings around it. The Main Building, the Front Gate, the gatekeeper's lodge and the two storehouses all show tile and plaster exteriors in the Japanese manner. Only the garage speaks the Western vocabulary of gambrel roof and dormers.

A gambrel roof breaks its pitch partway down, steepening the lower slope so the attic becomes usable space. The garage uses that shape to gain an upper floor and lights it through the dormers. Cars below and rooms above: the arrangement shows an early Shōwa household that gave its automobile a building of its own.

French tiles are a Western interlocking tile with a ribbed profile, quite unlike the Japanese Sangawara-buki tiles on the rest of the estate. Even the roofing material marks where Japanese ends and Western begins.

From Garage to Cafe

The former garage is now Cafe Shinkokan, run by Yoshida Sanso. The Kyoto City Tourism Association dates the cafe's opening to February 2007, a year earlier than the 2008 renovation recorded by the Agency. Public sources do not make clear which date marks the end of the work.

A Kyoto travel magazine describes climbing a small staircase to the seats upstairs. The ryokan's English site says the building keeps its original exterior, with the interior converted into a cafe and salon, and that the upper floor looks out to Mount Hiei, Mount Daimonji and the Higashiyama range. Since the upper floor was lit by dormers from the start, it seems to have been meant for people even when a car stood below.

What to Look For

Outside, watch the break in the gambrel roof and the row of dormers. Follow the line where the pitch changes and you can see how much of the upper floor is tucked inside the roof. At ground level, find the seam between the rendered wall and the pebbly araidashi base.

Walk round to the west gable to see where the car once entered. If you book the cafe, take a window seat upstairs and look at the dormer from inside. Because the roof has been cut up to set the window, the recess feels deeper than a hole through a wall.

Visiting the Former Garage

To go inside the Yoshida Sanso Former Garage, book a table at Cafe Shinkokan. According to Yoshida Sanso, the cafe takes reservations only, until noon the day before. On the day itself or the day before, walk-ins may be seated if space allows; availability cannot be checked by phone. There is a one-drink minimum of 1,800 yen per person, with cakes extra. Hours are 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., last orders 5:30 p.m.

Cafe Shinkokan also hosts concerts, exhibitions and private events, so regular service may not be available on some days. The exterior is seen from within the Yoshida Sanso grounds rather than from the street.