Kikusuiro

Kikusuiro: An 1891 House of Hospitality at Kasuga's First Torii

Kikusuiro (菊水楼, Kikusuirō) is a traditional dining inn founded in 1891 in front of the first torii gate of Kasuga Taisha in Takabatake-cho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and four of its structures (the Former Main Building, the Main Building, the Front Gate and the Garden Gate) were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan in 2000. Today Kikusuiro operates as a ryotei, a high-end Japanese restaurant, and as a venue for banquets and weddings, so all four registered structures remain in everyday use.

According to Nara City's plan for maintaining and improving its historic character, Kikusuiro opened in July 1891 on the former site of Kozen-in, part of the temple Kofukuji, and for a time traded under the name Kikusui Hotel. The railway reached Nara in 1890, and within a few years lines also ran to Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, bringing a sharp rise in visitors from far away. The city plan names Kikusuiro among the dining inns that opened around Sarusawa Pond and Nara Park as sightseeing in Nara modernized.

In 1901, ten years after the opening, a 3-story wooden Main Building was added and joined to the original building, which is now called the Former Main Building. The Front Gate and the Garden Gate are both Edo-period gates of the yakuimon type, and tradition holds that they stood at a sub-temple of Enjoji (圓成寺) before being moved here in the Meiji era. The company that runs Kikusuiro says the buildings incorporate timbers handed down from temples and techniques that are hard to reproduce today, such as the coved and coffered ceiling known as oriage go-tenjo.

The Kikusuiro Site and Its Four Registered Structures

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Kikusuiro site as a corner lot facing the approach to Kasuga Taisha, with Arai-ike Pond behind it. Sanjo-dori, the street that runs east through central Nara, ends at the first torii of Kasuga Taisha, and Kikusuiro occupies the south side of the street just short of the gate. The property fronts two roads, Sanjo-dori and National Route 169, also called the Tenri Kaido.

Following the agency's descriptions, the four registered structures can be summarized as follows:

• Kikusuiro Front Gate: the main gate, facing Sanjo-dori; a yakuimon roofed with traditional round-and-flat tiles, 2.4 meters wide
• Kikusuiro Main Building: a 3-story wooden building joined to the Former Main Building, with a projecting hip-and-gable entrance porch at the front; it is visible from Sanjo-dori together with the Front Gate
• Kikusuiro Garden Gate: a smaller yakuimon beside the entrance of the Main Building, set in the wall that separates the entrance area from the garden north of the Former Main Building
• Kikusuiro Former Main Building: the 2-story wooden building of 1891, with a garden on its north side

The structure and highlights of each building are covered on its own page.

How Kikusuiro Was Registered

All four Kikusuiro structures were registered on the same day, December 4, 2000. Their registration numbers run in sequence: 29-0030 for the Former Main Building, 29-0031 for the Main Building, 29-0032 for the Front Gate and 29-0033 for the Garden Gate. Each was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The agency's commentary says the view of the Main Building from Sanjo-dori, together with the Front Gate, is indispensable to the scene in front of the great torii, and it notes that the dignified look of the old dining inn in the Former Main Building is familiar and dear to local people. Kikusuiro was valued as a group of buildings that shapes the setting at the first torii.

Nara City's second-phase plan for its historic character also presents Kikusuiro as one of the inns and restaurants that grew up in and around Nara Park, and it lists the Front Gate among the city's historic landscape buildings.

Visiting Kikusuiro

Kikusuiro is not a museum but a working restaurant, so the interiors are open only to guests of the ryotei and to people attending banquets or weddings. Meals at the ryotei are by reservation only, and bookings must be made by 5:00 p.m. three days in advance (for a Thursday visit, by 5:00 p.m. on Monday). Lunch service runs from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with last entry at 1:00 p.m., and dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. with last entry at 6:00 p.m. Kikusuiro is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The exteriors of the Kikusuiro Front Gate and Main Building can be seen from Sanjo-dori by anyone. Walking toward Kasuga Taisha, glance at the south side of the street just before the first torii and you will see the scene the Agency for Cultural Affairs singled out. If you hope to take photographs inside, ask when you make your reservation.

Kikusuiro is about a 7-minute walk from Kintetsu Nara Station, or about 5 minutes by taxi from JR Nara Station. Kikusuiro has parking for 3 cars on Sanjo-dori and around 14 on National Route 169, but restaurant guests cannot reserve a space.