Former Kitato

What Is Former Kitato?

Former Kitato (旧喜多藤, Kyū-Kitato) is a group of buildings from a former ryotei ryokan, a restaurant inn, in Honmachi, Nabari City, Mie Prefecture; seven structures built between 1923 and 1936 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 14 October 2021. Its gate opens onto Honmachi-dori, the old Hase Kaido highway, while the back of the property looks out over the Nabari River.

The house name is read Kitato, not Kitafuji. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the reading "kyū kitato" for all seven entries, and this site uses Former Kitato throughout.

According to a November 2020 report in the Chunichi Shimbun, the inn was run by the family of Kitada Tōtarō (1906 to 1985), the first mayor of Nabari, and members of the family still look after the buildings and garden nearly 40 years after it closed. Few places in central Nabari keep a restaurant inn this complete, with its gate, banquet halls, guest rooms and tea room all standing on the same lot.

Seven Registrations, One Inn

All seven Former Kitato buildings were entered in the national register in the same round, the 98th, on 14 October 2021. They carry consecutive registration numbers, 24-290 through 24-296, and share one criterion: each contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The agency's database gives these dates and sizes:

• Annex: 1923, two-storey timber building, 209 square meters in plan
• Toilet Building: 1923, single-storey timber building, 39 square meters
• Front Gate: 1923, timber gate 2.6 meters wide, with flanking walls
• Enshutei: 1932, single-storey timber building, 103 square meters
• Great Hall Building: 1936, two-storey timber building, 164 square meters
• Suimeiso: 1936, single-storey timber building, 59 square meters
• Satsukiryo: 1936, single-storey tea room, 12 square meters

Nabari City's list of cultural properties labels the seven Former Kitato entries as Taisho and Meiji period work. The national database dates them to 1923, 1932 and 1936, and this page follows the national record.

Three Building Phases on One Lot

Former Kitato grew in three stages. The Front Gate, the Annex and the Toilet Building went up together in 1923. Enshutei, a detached block of guest rooms, followed in 1932. In 1936 the Great Hall Building, the Suimeiso residence and the Satsukiryo tea room were all added at once, filling the western part of the lot.

Read against the agency's descriptions, the layout is easy to follow. The Annex stands straight ahead as you pass through the gate, with the Toilet Building just in front of it, linked by covered corridors to both the Annex and the Great Hall. The Great Hall Building sits west of the Annex, Suimeiso west of that, and Satsukiryo opens off Suimeiso. Enshutei alone stands at the eastern edge with an entrance of its own, which is why its address is 116 Honmachi while the other six share 118-1.

The two-storey Annex and Great Hall, where guests ate, drank and stayed, line the river side; the family's own quarters and the tea room tuck in beside them, and the private guest rooms keep their distance. The plan of a working inn is still there to read in the arrangement of roofs.

A Street Front and a River Front

Former Kitato faces two ways. Toward the highway it shows a formal front: a roofed gate of knotty logs and low walls on either side. Toward the Nabari River, the upper floors of the Annex and the Great Hall are glazed across their full width with floor-level windows, so the banquet rooms take in the view of the water.

The registration criterion, contribution to the historic landscape, refers to both of these faces. On the street side the Former Kitato buildings hold the line of the old town along Honmachi-dori; on the river side they shape the view along the Nabari River.

Visiting and Getting There

Former Kitato is privately owned and not open to the public. Visitors cannot enter the buildings or step inside the gate, and no regular open days by the city or the owners could be found.

What you can see is the Front Gate and its flanking walls on Honmachi-dori. Take photos from the public road only, and keep the street clear for neighbours and traffic while you look.

The nearest station is Nabari on the Kintetsu Osaka Line. The Former Kitato gate is about 1 kilometer away on foot, roughly 15 minutes' walk: leave on the west side of the station and head west through the town center until you reach Honmachi-dori.