Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms

A Two-Storey Wing at the Back

The Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms (北方文化博物館新座敷, Shinzashiki) in Somi, Konan Ward, Niigata City, is a two-storey timber reception wing of 1889, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000.

The Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms stands at the back of the estate on the west side and covers 108 square metres. It is a full two storeys high under a hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) tiled roof, with a half-bay-deep pent roof running around the ground floor.

It dates from 1889, the same year as the great hall and the bathhouse, when the estate's construction was completed.

Sukiya Refinement, a Different Mood

The Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms was registered as a model of good design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes a sukiya-based design that uses fine timber with delicacy and finishes the interior walls in subdued sand plaster.

The agency adds that it has a character distinct from the main house and other buildings of the same period. Where the main house impresses by scale, this wing impresses through its choice of materials and finish.

Sand Plaster and Slender Timbers

Look closely at the wall surfaces of the Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms. Sand plaster has a softer colour and texture than white plaster.

The sukiya handling of good timber shows in the slenderness of posts and fittings, and the pent roof around the ground floor adds a horizontal line to the exterior.

Seen after the main house, it shows how one family could shift register within a single estate.

Visiting the New Reception Rooms

The Northern Culture Museum New Reception Rooms is at the back of the museum grounds on the west side. The museum publishes nothing on interior access, so focus on the exterior and follow on-site signs about entry.

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