Kawai Genshichiro Family Residence Detached Parlor and Tea Room

What Is the Kawai Genshichiro Family Residence Detached Parlor and Tea Room?

The Kawai Genshichiro Family Residence Detached Parlor and Tea Room (河合源七郎家住宅離れ座敷及び茶室, Kawai Genshichirō-ke Jūtaku Hanare Zashiki oyobi Chashitsu) is an early Taisho-era annex of the 1910s in the refined Sukiya-zukuri manner in Kitayagi-cho, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2009. It stands behind the main house facing an inner garden, linked by a corridor to a reception room that projects east from the house.

The parlor is a single-storey wooden building of 4.9 by 6.4 meters with an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof in Sangawara-buki tiles, and a 3-mat Chashitsu tea room is attached on its north side. Nara Prefecture gives the tea room as 2.7 by 3.9 meters. Together they cover 42 square meters.

Why It Was Registered

The Kawai Genshichiro detached parlor and tea room was registered for design that serves as a model. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that both parlor and tea room use logs with the bark left on and other sukiya touches, creating a quiet, secluded atmosphere around the inner garden.

If the Meiji main house was built to show a merchant's standing to the street, this Taisho addition was a private retreat for entertaining guests and serving tea. According to Nara Prefecture, the parlor has the tea room, a washroom and toilet on its north side and a bathhouse wing to the south, so it functions as a self-contained lodging apart from the main house.

What to Look For

A Round Window and a Wall Alcove

The 3-mat tea room of the Kawai Genshichiro Family Residence has a hip-and-gable roof of tiles with some copper sheeting. Nara Prefecture records a large round window on its east side and, on the north, a kabedoko, an alcove made simply of a wall surface without the usual post and raised base of a Tokonoma. In this tiny room the round light of the window faces the flat plane of the alcove.

A Garden with a Stone Basin

East of the tea room, the northeast corner of the plot is enclosed by a wall built as one with the building and laid out as a small garden around a tsukubai stone water basin. The prefecture describes it as giving a memorable view from both the tea room and the parlor. It is this garden that the round window frames.

Low Fretwork Railings

The corridor from the main house and the veranda of the tea room carry low railings in a broken swastika fretwork pattern, an ancient Buddhist motif long used in East Asian lattice design. They sit so low that they mark the edge of the floor more than they guard it, and with the bark-covered posts they keep the annex light in feel. Part of the west eave is roofed in copper, easing the weight of the tiles.

How to Visit

The Kawai Genshichiro Family Residence Detached Parlor and Tea Room lies deep inside the estate and cannot be visited for sightseeing (checked September 27, 2026); it is hidden from the Shimotsumichi by the main house.

The owner, Tsuchihashiya Genshichi Co., Ltd., rents the house as a photo and film studio by reservation, and its website shows the tea room and the view of the inner garden from the parlor among the shooting locations. Only such bookings allow a look at the round window and fretwork railings.