A Liquor Shop and Teahouse on the Road to Hasedera
Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) (山田酒店（茶房長谷路）, Yamada Saketen, Sabō Haseji) is a liquor shop on the approach to Hasedera temple in Hatsuse, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, built around a main house of 1812; six of its structures were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on December 4, 2000. The six are the main house, the teahouse zashiki, the tea room, the inner storehouse, the garden gate and the wall.
According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the main house was rebuilt after the local river, recorded as the Hasegawa, flooded in 1811. The inner storehouse dates from the same time, so the shop and its storehouse are the two parts that go back to the Edo period.
The compound took its present shape in the early Taishō period. The main house was extended, and the storehouse was moved to its current spot using Hikiya, the technique of shifting a whole building on rollers. Four new structures were added at that point: the teahouse zashiki, the tea room, the garden gate and the wall. The Agency credits their design to the grandfather of the owner at the time of registration, whose name it records as 山田新. In other words, the family laid out a garden and guest rooms behind the shop so they could receive pilgrims.
Hatsuse grew up as the temple town of Hasedera and as a post town on the old road to Ise, and older houses still line the approach. Yamada Liquor Store occupies one stretch of that street.
Six Structures Registered on the Same Day
The registration numbers of Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) run consecutively from 29-0039 to 29-0044. They were part of the 27th round of registrations, officially announced on December 20, 2000. Nara Prefecture's own list of registered properties in the prefecture carries them as a single entry: the main house "and five others."
All six were registered under the same criterion, as structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. In its note on the wall, the Agency describes the buildings as part of the townscape along the pilgrims' road to Hasedera.
The dates fall into two groups.
The main house and the inner storehouse date from 1812, in the Edo period. The teahouse zashiki, the tea room, the garden gate and the wall belong to the early Taishō period, which the Agency's database gives as the span 1912 to 1925. By type, four are buildings (the main house, teahouse zashiki, tea room and storehouse) and two, the gate and the wall, are classed as other structures. Only the main house is filed under commercial buildings; the other five fall under residences. Each is counted as a single structure in the Registered Tangible Cultural Property register.
Layout of the Site and a Walking Order
Putting together the Agency's descriptions, the Yamada Liquor Store site meets the approach road on its south side and wraps around a central garden.
The main house holds the shop front on the road. From it the wall runs east along the south edge of the lot, and the garden gate opens in the middle of the wall. The gate stands slightly back from the line of the wall and serves as the teahouse entrance. Right beside it, joined to the east face of the main house, is the tea room.
Across the garden, in the northeast corner, stands the detached teahouse zashiki, with the inner storehouse attached to it. The teahouse zashiki, the tea room and the rooms on the east side of the main house all open toward the garden.
A good order is to look first at the shop front and the wall from the approach, then pass through the garden gate halfway along. Inside, the garden opens up with the tea room close by and the teahouse zashiki and storehouse beyond it. Walked this way, the plan reads clearly: an Edo shop and storehouse and a Taishō guest wing and tea room, all arranged around one garden.
Visiting Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse)
Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) still operates as a teahouse, and the way to see the interiors is to go in as a customer. There is no separate guided viewing of the buildings as cultural properties.
According to the Sakurai City Tourism Association, Haseji opens from 11:00 a.m. and has no fixed closing day. It seats 30 and has parking for 5 vehicles, large ones included. The telephone number is 0744-47-7047. Because closing days vary, call ahead before making a special trip.
Even when it is closed, the shop front of the main house, the wall and the outside of the garden gate can be seen from the approach. No photography policy is published, so ask the staff before taking pictures indoors or in the garden, and keep clear of passing pilgrims when shooting from the street.
By train, get off at Hasedera Station on the Kintetsu Osaka Line. Hasedera gives the walk from the station to the temple as about 15 minutes, and Yamada Liquor Store stands on the approach along that route, in the temple town. Another option is a Nara Kotsu bus from Sakurai Station (JR Man'yō Mahoroba Line and Kintetsu Osaka Line) to the Hasedera Sandōguchi stop, then a walk up the approach.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002081
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Teahouse Zashiki
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002082
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Tea Room
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002083
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Inner Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002084
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Garden Gate
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002085
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Wall
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002086
- Nara Prefecture: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in Nara Prefecture (Japanese, PDF)
- https://www.pref.nara.lg.jp/documents/25010/20260707102839.pdf
- Sakurai City Tourism Association: Haseji (Japanese)
- https://sakuraikanko.com/eat/%e9%95%b7%e8%b0%b7%e8%b7%af/
- Sakurai City Tourism Association: Hatsuse Road model course (Japanese)
- https://sakuraikanko.com/modelcourse/hasemichi/
- Hasedera: Access (Japanese)
- https://www.hasedera.or.jp/guide/access.html
Last verified: 2026.09.28
Basic Information
| Name | Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) |
|---|---|
| Location | 857 Hatsuse, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (6) |
| Coordinates | 34.53122, 135.90632 |
