Yachiyo Great Hall Building

The Hall Wing behind the Entrance

The Yachiyo Great Hall Building (八千代大広間棟) is the banqueting wing of a kappo ryokan of the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) in Tonomachi, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 1, 2016 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tile roof and a building area of 249 square metres, renovated in 1957; registration number 24-0233.

A 110-Tatami Hall Upstairs

The Yachiyo Great Hall Building stands behind the entrance building, its ridge at right angles to it (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The ground floor has a 30-tatami hall and other rooms, and the upper floor is taken up by a great hall of 110 tatami. From the street it is largely hidden by the entrance building.

The interior fittings date from the 1957 renovation (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the official Yachiyo website, the ground floor of the Yachiyo Great Hall Building also holds two baths booked for private use and 1 Western-style dining room with tables and chairs.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to the raised coffered ceiling of the great hall, the alcove post cut from a large tree with its branch stubs left on, and the elegant transoms, as a clear record of the Japanese-style taste in inn architecture of the time, and registered the building as a model of design. The Yachiyo Great Hall Building was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2016.

Mie Prefecture likewise names the refined design of the 110-tatami hall as typical of inn buildings of that period.

What to Look For

In the upstairs great hall, look up first: a raised coffered ceiling, curved up at the edges, spans all 110 tatami. In the alcove, the post cut from a large tree still shows where its branches grew.

The openwork transoms are worth a close look too. The English pages of the official Yachiyo website add that the great hall has a wooden-floored stage and a painting of a warrior lord hung in the alcove.

Visiting

The Yachiyo Great Hall Building is used for banquets and dinners, and the interior is open only to guests with a booking (official Yachiyo website). Since the great hall is booked for parties, a meal reservation does not guarantee a look inside it. No official notice of tours for sightseers or of a photography policy was found. Directions and booking conditions are on the Yachiyo page.