Yachiyo in Matsusaka
Yachiyo (八千代) is a kappo ryokan, a restaurant with guest rooms, founded in 1915 in Tonomachi, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, whose entrance building, great hall building and Tsurukame building were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 1, 2016 (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Mie Prefecture). All three belong to Yachiyo Co., Ltd., and Yachiyo still serves meals and puts up guests in them.
According to Mie Prefecture, Yachiyo first traded on the site of the second bailey of Matsusaka Castle and moved to its present plot in Tonomachi around 1929. The official Yachiyo website says the house began as the private residence of Ozu Kōnosuke, a member of the Ozu merchant family of Matsusaka, and that it was a merchant's home converted into a restaurant rather than a building designed as one.
Sources differ on the dates. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the entrance and great hall buildings to the early Showa period (1926 to 1945), with renovation in 1957, and the Tsurukame building to the early Taisho period (1912 to 1918), moved to the site in the early Showa period. The official Yachiyo website describes a modern Japanese-style house of the late Meiji period remodelled in the early Showa period, and its English pages give the founding year as 1921. This page follows the Agency for the building dates and Mie Prefecture for the founding year.
The Three Buildings of Yachiyo
Yachiyo faces east onto a street in the old castle town of Matsusaka (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Mie Prefecture describes Tonomachi as the part of the castle town where many samurai houses stood, and counts Yachiyo among the buildings of a district that keeps the feel of samurai residences behind clipped podocarpus hedges. The official Yachiyo website places it in the former Doshincho quarter; according to the Mie Prefecture tourism federation, this was where samurai of the doshin rank lived, a short walk southeast of the Gojoban Yashiki row houses.
On the plot, the Yachiyo Entrance Building stands slightly back from the street and shows the gable of its hip-and-gable roof to the east, where the entrance is. Behind it, at right angles, stands the Yachiyo Great Hall Building with a 110-tatami hall upstairs. The Yachiyo Tsurukame Building is a single-storey wing to the south of the entrance front, which the Agency believes survives from the time of the Ozu residence (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Each building has its own page covering its structure and what to look for.
Getting to Yachiyo and Using the Rooms
Yachiyo is about 10 minutes on foot from Matsusaka Station (JR and Kintetsu lines) and about 15 minutes by car from the Matsusaka interchange of the Ise Expressway (Mie Prefecture tourism federation). The official website gives the walk to the Matsusaka Castle ruins as 2 minutes.
Yachiyo is a working kappo ryokan and takes guests by reservation only (official Yachiyo website). The tourism federation lists last orders for lunch between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and for dinner between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and asks same-day visitors to call ahead. The guest rooms for overnight stays are on the upper floor of the entrance building.
The interiors are seen as a dining or overnight guest with a booking. No official notice of tours for sightseers or of a photography policy was found. The exterior can be seen from the street in Tonomachi.
References
- Yachiyo Entrance Building (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011146
- Yachiyo Great Hall Building (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011147
- Yachiyo Tsurukame Building (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011148
- Summary of new designations and registrations recommended for Mie Prefecture (Mie Prefecture, Japanese)
- https://www.pref.mie.lg.jp/common/content/000373396.pdf
- Stay (official Kappo Ryokan Yachiyo website, Japanese)
- https://www.yachiyo-web.co.jp/htm2/tomaru.html
- Kappo Ryokan Yachiyo (Mie Prefecture tourism federation, Japanese)
- https://www.kankomie.or.jp/spot/1248
- Tonomachi, the former Doshincho quarter (Mie Prefecture tourism federation, Japanese)
- https://www.kankomie.or.jp/spot/1841
Last verified: 2026.11.01
Basic Information
| Name | Yachiyo |
|---|---|
| Location | 1295 Tonomachi, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture |
| Owner | Yachiyo Co., Ltd. |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (3) |
| Coordinates | 34.57462, 136.52896 |
