A Postwar Detached Wing
South of the central hall stands this guest wing, eight and a half ken along the front and four and a half ken deep, a single-storey timber building under a hipped roof of unglazed pantiles. It dates to around 1950, in the early postwar years.
The wing takes the detached hanare form and holds three rooms, with a hip-and-gable entrance set on the west side. Among the buildings listed here it is one of the later additions, showing that Hanaya went on refining its guest quarters well after its Taisho-era core was in place.
Bessho Onsen, in the Shioda basin south of Ueda, has welcomed bathers for centuries, and the town is dense enough with old temples and pagodas to be called the Kamakura of Shinshu. Hanaya, opened in 1917, kept building within that setting across the decades.
Listed as a Model of Craftsmanship
The wing was added to the register in 2006 under the criterion for structures serving as a model of design. The listing rests on the material and technique gathered around its alcoves.
Fine timber is used throughout, focused on the tokonoma alcoves that anchor each room. The thresholds, for instance, are cut from black persimmon, kurogaki, a rare and highly prized wood valued for the dark figured grain that appears in only a small share of persimmon trees.
Choices like this, and the accomplished technique they demand, mark the wing as a high point of postwar craftsmanship in the complex. The listing recognises it as a model of what careful material selection and skilled work can achieve.
What to Look For
Seek out the thresholds cut from black persimmon. The dark, irregular figure in the grain is what makes the wood so prized, and finding it in a working threshold rather than a display piece is a quiet mark of luxury.
Look at how the good timber gathers around each tokonoma alcove. The alcove is the room's focal point, and concentrating the finest material there is a deliberate expression of the room's status.
The hip-and-gable entrance on the west side gives the detached wing a formal face. As a guest building in a working ryokan, it is best appreciated by staying, with time to notice the material up close.
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Q&A
- What is black persimmon wood?
- Kurogaki is a rare, highly prized timber with dark figured grain that appears in only a small share of persimmon trees; here it is used for the thresholds.
- When was it built?
- Around 1950, in the early postwar years, making it one of the later buildings in the listing.
- How many rooms does it have?
- Three, arranged in the detached hanare form, with a hip-and-gable entrance on the west side.
- Why is it listed as a model of design?
- Because fine timber and accomplished technique are concentrated around its alcoves, marking it as a high point of postwar craftsmanship.
Basic Information
| Name | Hanaya Hotel Building No. 61 |
|---|---|
| Location | 169 Bessho Onsen, Ueda, Nagano Prefecture |
| Category / Listing | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), listed 18 October 2006 |
| Registration No. | 20-0295 |
| Count | One structure |
| Structure | Single-storey timber, hipped pantile roof, hip-and-gable entrance; footprint approx. 140 sq m |
| Period | About Showa 25 (c. 1950) |
| Owner | Hanaya Hotel Co., Ltd. |
| Access | About 5 minutes on foot from Bessho Onsen Station (Ueda Electric Railway) |
| Note | Detached guest wing of three rooms within a working ryokan |
References
- 国指定文化財等データベース — 花屋ホテル（管理対象ID 00005880）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00005880
- 文化遺産オンライン — 花屋ホテル（詳細 152485）
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/152485
- 旅館花屋 公式サイト — 館内・沿革のご案内
- https://www.hanaya.ne.jp/
Last verified: 2026.07.03