Izumi City Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art Teahouses

A family tea compound, copied with care

The Izumi City Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art Teahouses are a group of tea rooms, gates and garden shelters built in 1937 in what is now the garden of the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art in Uchida-cho, Izumi, Osaka Prefecture; ten of the structures were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2006.

Kuboso was a cotton firm that had worked in this corner of southern Osaka since the Meiji era. Its second head, Kubo Sotaro II (1889 to 1944), was a devoted follower of the tea ceremony, and according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs he built two tea rooms at his own residence, each a copy of a famous room belonging to the Omotesenke school of tea in Kyoto. Chosentei reproduces the reception room called Zangetsu-tei; Soan reproduces the tiny Fushin-an. Osaka Bunkazai Navi, a heritage guide run with the prefectural architects' association, adds that the names were given by Sokuchusai, the 13th head of Omotesenke, and that the builder was the Hirai construction firm under Hirai Gisaburo.

What makes the Izumi City Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art Teahouses unusual is that the copying did not stop at the buildings. The outer Roji leading to Chosentei and the inner roji leading to Soan repeat the Omotesenke garden sequence: a waiting arbor, a Nakakuguri gate, the Umemi Gate and a stone well curb, placed in the same order.

Dates vary slightly by source. The national database gives 1937 for nine of the ten structures and 1941 for the small Shoin-an, while the museum describes the tea rooms as built between 1937 and 1940.

From mill family to municipal museum

Kuboso wound up its business in 1977. The company and the Kubo family then gave the city their art collection together with the land and buildings, tea rooms included, and the museum opened in 1982. The museum now looks after the tea rooms and their garden.

On 29 November 2006 the ten structures were registered under numbers 27-0402 to 27-0411. In 2021 the tea garden itself was added to the national register of monuments as a place of scenic interest, and in November 2025 the national Council for Cultural Affairs recommended six more items for registration: the west and east storehouses, a north board fence, a roji gate, a west gate and a south wall.

Each of the ten structures is a separate registration, and each has its own page here covering its construction and the details it borrows from Omotesenke.

How the compound fits together

The tea compound sits on the west side of the Matsuo River, which runs through the museum grounds. An arched bridge, the Senjin-bashi, crosses the river, and straight ahead on the far side stands the east-facing Main Gate with eaves of cypress bark. The small Shoin-an tea room waits at the foot of the bridge.

Through the gate, the Outer Waiting Arbor lies to the north, with the fence-like Nakakuguri Gate beyond it; together they frame Chosentei's outer roji. A stone well curb sits toward the east of this garden, and the south-facing Umemi Gate leads through to Soan's inner roji, where the Inner Waiting Arbor stands just east of the gate.

Chosentei occupies the middle of the west side, with Soan joined to its north through a shared preparation room, and the Entrance Hall wing faces east at the southwest corner. A guest moving from gate to arbor to tea room is walking the Omotesenke route laid out on the ground.

Getting there and seeing the tea rooms

From Izumi-Chuo Station on the Nankai Semboku Line, take a Nankai bus bound for Bijutsukan-mae and get off at the last stop, right by the museum. By car it is about 3 minutes from the Kishiwada-Izumi interchange on the Hanwa Expressway, and parking is free.

The museum opens 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.) and closes on Mondays (or the next weekday when Monday is a public holiday), over the New Year and between exhibitions. Admission to the permanent display is 500 yen for adults and 300 yen for high school and university students; junior high students and younger enter free. Special displays and exhibitions are priced separately.

The tea rooms open only on Sundays. For fiscal 2026 the museum lists two sessions, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., cancelled in rain and subject to change without notice. Photography is allowed, but tripods and selfie sticks are not, and bare feet are not permitted inside. Some areas are closed for conservation. The museum's opening notice covers Chosentei; Soan is described as closed to the public.

The museum website does not say whether viewing the tea rooms requires a museum ticket, so it is worth calling ahead (0725-54-0001) before planning a visit around a Sunday session.