Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room

What Is the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room?

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room (ぜいたく豆本舗本店旧応接室, Kyu-osetsushitsu) is a single-storey wooden reception room built around 1951 at the back of the Zeitaku Mame Honpo lot in Tsunofuricho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and it was registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 1, 2003.

It is a small building attached to the front of the West Storehouse, with a tiled roof and a building area of just 14 square metres. Among the four registered buildings on the lot, the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room is the only one from after the Second World War; the main house and both storehouses date from the Meiji era.

Why the Former Reception Room Was Registered

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room holds registration number 29-0073 and was listed as a model of good design. As a rule, a building must be at least 50 years old to be registered, so this room from around 1951 qualified only shortly before it was registered alongside the three older buildings.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises its design, the ceiling in particular, and notes that although the doors and other fittings in its openings have been altered, the room as a whole keeps its original state well.

The Roof, the Light and the Ceiling of the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room has a hip-and-gable roof in the Irimoya-zukuri style, and beneath its eaves a small skirt roof of copper sheet runs all the way around. With a second, lower line of copper below the tiles, even this one-storey building gains depth at the eaves.

Inside there is a single room with a wooden floor. A large opening on the southeast side faces the courtyard and lets daylight into the room; it is a reception room designed to open itself toward the garden.

Look up and you will see an oriage Gō-tenjō, a coffered ceiling whose centre is lifted a step above a curved cove around the edges. Putting such a formal ceiling over a room of about 14 square metres shows how much care went into this parlour.

Visiting the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Former Reception Room faces the courtyard at the back of the lot and cannot be seen from Sanjo-dori. We found no notice of its interior being open to visitors.

A photo record kept by volunteer supporters of the Nara Prefectural Library and Information Center includes a picture of the room taken from inside the shop in 2013, while Zeitaku Mame Honpo was still trading. Today the main house in front is a convenience store, and we could not confirm if customers can reach the reception room. Please do not enter the rear of the property without permission.