Nozaki Family Villa Taikado

What Nozaki Family Villa Taikado Is

Nozaki Family Villa Taikado (野﨑家別邸たい暇堂, properly written 迨暇堂 and read Taikadō) is a guest-reception estate built in 1896 in Kojima Ajino, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, where twelve buildings and structures are entered on the national register of tangible cultural properties. The word taika means to seize a moment of leisure and enjoy it.

The man behind it was Nozaki Bukichiro, grandson of Nozaki Buzaemon, who had made the family fortune developing salt fields along this stretch of the Seto Inland Sea. Bukichiro served three terms in the House of Peers over sixteen years from 1890. Ajino at the time held the Kojima district government office and saw a steady traffic of officials and visitors, and the family needed somewhere to receive them.

Taikado was built for that purpose: entertaining, lodging and meetings. The construction also served as relief work for the unemployed in the years after the First Sino-Japanese War, so a villa for distinguished guests doubled as a jobs programme for the town.

An Estate Beside the Oda River

Nozaki Family Villa Taikado stands where the lane from the Nozaki main house runs down toward the Oda River, one street away from the family's own residence. The eastern boundary of the grounds follows the river, and a long earthen wall runs along it.

Nine of the registered structures went up together in 1896: the main house, the storehouse, the residence, the rickshaw shed, the rickshaw pullers' room, the middle gate, the east wall, the main gate and the bust pedestal. Twelve years later, in 1908, three more were added to mark Bukichiro's sixtieth birthday: Yuyotei, its bathhouse, and Seiten. All three are thatched with reed and deliberately styled after a country cottage, which sets them against the formal carpentry of the main house.

Walking the Grounds

Entry to Nozaki Family Villa Taikado is through the stone main gate. Beyond it lies the front garden, with the caretaker's residence to the right and the rickshaw shed and pullers' room to the left, the three of them enclosing the space. Straight ahead is the formal shikidai entrance of the main house.

South of the main house a hall of one hundred tatami mats projects into the garden. Seiten sits in the eastern part of that garden near the east wall; Yuyotei and its bathhouse lie southwest of the tearoom off the main house pantry. The pedestal for Bukichiro's bust stands east of the great hall. The middle gate opens in the centre of the bamboo fence dividing the front garden from the south garden, at the head of the path that leads past the main house lavatory into the grounds.

Nothing here is far apart. The two most widely separated structures are about 80 metres from each other, so the whole estate can be seen in a single visit.

Twelve Registered Structures

The buildings of Nozaki Family Villa Taikado were entered on the register of tangible cultural properties together on 28 April 2000, with public notice following on 17 May. Their registration numbers run in sequence from 33-0033. Twelve remain registered today: the main house, storehouse, Yuyotei, Yuyotei bathhouse, residence, Seiten, rickshaw shed, rickshaw pullers' room, middle gate, east wall, main gate and bust pedestal.

A thirteenth, the west wall, was on the original list. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs list of removals, it was taken off the register on 22 August 2007 after being dismantled. Kurashiki City still lists the estate under the heading "main house and twelve other structures", a count that reflects the original thirteen rather than the twelve that survive.

The criterion applied was contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. What earned the listing is less the individual rank of any one building than the picture the whole estate gives of how a salt-field fortune shaped a provincial town.

Access to the Interior

Nozaki Family Villa Taikado belongs to Naikai Salt Co., Ltd. and is normally closed. The gates stay shut and the grounds cannot be entered.

Once a year the estate opens as one of the venues of the Kojima Hinameguri doll festival, held in late February and early March. The 27th edition ran from 21 February to 8 March 2026, with hina dolls displayed here and at the former Nozaki residence nearby. The hundred-mat hall of the main house can only be entered during that window. For the following year's dates and the extent of the opening, ask the Kojima branch office of Kurashiki City or the former Nozaki Residence museum on 086-472-2001.

Outside those dates, the estate can be viewed only from the public road. The east wall and its gate are visible from the riverside lane, and the main gate from the street on the north side.

Getting There

The nearest station to Nozaki Family Villa Taikado is Kojima on the JR Seto-Ohashi Line, about 1 kilometre to the southeast, roughly 25 minutes on foot.

The Shimoden Jeans Bus also runs from Kojima Station on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; get off at Nozakike Kyutaku-mae and walk a few minutes. By car it is about 10 minutes from the Kojima interchange of the Seto-Chuo Expressway, and the free car park at the adjoining former Nozaki residence takes 36 cars and 5 coaches.