Two Tea Rooms in One Small Building on a Slope
The Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room (旧柚木家住宅（西爽亭）茶室) is a mid-Edo-period Chashitsu in Tamashima, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, dated to the Tenmei era (1781 to 1788) and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 18 October 2000. It is a single-story timber building with a copper-sheet roof and a footprint of just 8.9 square meters.
It stands in the southern corner of the grounds. The copper roof has a gentle pitch and sits low and light, a clear contrast with the heavy tiled roof of the reception wing.
Inside this small building are two tea rooms of different kinds. One is a room for chanoyu, the whisked-tea ceremony, made of three daime mats and a nakaita, a wooden board set among the mats. The other is a two-mat room for sencha, steeped leaf tea. Telling the two apart is the first thing to do at the Saisotei Tea Room.
"Not Easily Reproduced"
The Yunoki Tea Room was listed under the criterion for works that are not easily reproduced. The main house qualified as a model of form and the Onarimon Gate for its place in the streetscape, so the tea room is the one building of the three recognized for the singularity of its craft.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the plan of the chanoyu room unusual. A daime mat is roughly three-quarters the length of a standard tatami and is often used for the host's place. Three of them combined with a nakaita board make a plan that does not fit the usual types.
To that the builders added the sencha room, pushed out over the slope of the garden in the manner of kakezukuri, the post-supported construction best known from temple verandas built over hillsides. A chanoyu room and a sencha room in one building, with one of them held up above the slope: that combination is why the tea room was judged hard to reproduce.
Shoji Screens as Stage Scenery
The Agency's description stresses one more feature. On the garden side of the Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room, the wall is covered with shoji screens, heightening what it calls a theatrical effect.
Closed, shoji make a wall that lets in soft, diffused light. Opened, they frame the garden like a picture. Slide them back in the projecting sencha room and the room becomes a viewing platform above the garden. The cantilevered construction and the sliding screens work toward the same effect.
Kurashiki City describes the tea room as retaining a fine design. Tamashima was once a town of many tea rooms: Okayama Prefecture's tourism site reports that there are said to have been some 400, of which more than 40 survive. The Saisotei Tea Room is one of them, and one that holds national registration.
Visiting the Saisotei Tea Room
The Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room stands in the southern corner of the garden and can be seen across the garden from the reception rooms. Look for the outline of the sencha room jutting over the slope and the row of shoji facing the garden.
Official information is silent on entering the tea room and on photography. Ask at reception when you visit. Hours, directions and parking are on the Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) page.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Okayama
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room
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Q&A
- What is special about the Yunoki Family Residence Tea Room?
- It combines a chanoyu room of three daime mats and a nakaita board with a two-mat sencha room that projects over the garden slope, all in one small building. The garden-side wall is covered with shoji screens.
- How big is the Saisotei Tea Room in Kurashiki?
- Its building area is 8.9 square meters. It is a single-story timber building with a gently pitched copper-sheet roof.
- Why is the Yunoki Family Residence Tea Room a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- It was registered on 18 October 2000 as a work not easily reproduced, for its unusual plan and the sencha room built out over the slope.
- Where is the Saisotei Tea Room on the Yunoki estate?
- In the southern corner of the grounds, within the garden. You can see it across the garden from the reception rooms.
- Can visitors go inside the Yunoki Family Residence Tea Room?
- Official information does not say. Ask at reception on the day, or call 086-522-0151 before you go.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-8-25 Tamashima, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | 2000 (registered 18 October 2000) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 8.9 square meters (single-story timber, copper-sheet roof) |
| Owner | Kurashiki City |
| Public Access | Exterior visible across the garden (interior access unconfirmed, free admission, closed Mondays) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei) Tea Room
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001940
- Kurashiki City: Former Yunoki Family Residence (Saisotei)
- https://www.city.kurashiki.okayama.jp/kosodate/lifelong/1007921/1007922.html
- Okayama Tourism Web: A Tour of the Tea Rooms of Tamashima Port (Kurashiki)
- https://www.okayama-kanko.jp/okatabi/1505/page
Last verified: 2026.09.25
