Konishi Choyokan

What Konishi Choyokan Is

Konishi Choyokan (小西朝陽館, also written Konishi Chōyōkan) is a walled villa compound in Hashimotocho, Abeno Ward, Osaka City, built between 1912 and 1932, whose six structures were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017. It was the country house of Konishi Kyubei, a wholesale druggist from Osaka's Doshomachi pharmaceutical quarter, and it served as lodging for members of the imperial family and senior politicians visiting the city.

From the street, Konishi Choyokan reads as a long tiled-topped earthen wall running beside a quiet residential lane. Almost nothing of the interior is visible from outside. Behind the gate stand four buildings, the Palace, the Entrance Hall, the New Palace and the Moon-Viewing Pavilion, together with two walled gate structures, all arranged around a garden.

Japan's registration system for modern buildings works structure by structure, so the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists Konishi Choyokan as six separate entries. On the ground it is one house, its parts linked by roofed corridors.

A House Built for Guests

Konishi Kyubei (1869 to 1950) was born into a Doshomachi drug-trading family and built the tonic he marketed under the name Jiarin into a national brand. According to Choyo Gakuin, the school foundation he later endowed, Konishi Choyokan was begun in 1907 after Hijikata Hisamoto, the Imperial Household Minister, asked him to provide accommodation in Osaka for travelling members of the imperial family.

The name Choyo, written with the characters for morning and sunlight, is said to come from a remark made by an imperial guest who watched the sun rise over the garden. The same foundation records stays by Prince Kitashirakawa, Prince Higashikuni, Prince Kan'in and Prince Takeda, and visits by the statesmen Okuma Shigenobu, Saito Makoto and Suzuki Kantaro.

The compound went up in stages. The Palace and the Entrance Hall date from about 1912, the two gates and their walls from 1914, and the New Palace and the Moon-Viewing Pavilion from 1932. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the New Palace as a replacement built after a fire in 1922. Choyo Gakuin dates that fire to 1921 and attributes it to a blaze spreading from a neighbouring property, so the two accounts disagree by a year. The foundation also notes that incendiary scars from wartime air raids survive on one of the long corridors.

The grounds cover roughly 1,300 tsubo, about 4,300 square metres, by the foundation's account. The buildings follow shoin and sukiya conventions throughout. Konishi Choyokan is now maintained by the Konishi Choyokan Foundation.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The ground at Konishi Choyokan rises from the road on the southeast towards the back of the plot. The Gate and Roofed Earthen Wall front the street; inside it stands the Karamon and its flanking screens, and past that point the house proper begins.

The Entrance Hall attaches to the south end of the east face of the main house. One corridor runs north from it towards the living quarters, another turns south towards the Palace. The Palace occupies the southern part of the plot and looks down over the garden, and the drop in ground level allowed a tea room to be fitted underneath it.

Linking the Palace with the New Palace is the Moon-Viewing Pavilion, a covered passage from which a single room projects on posts over the slope. The New Palace, rebuilt in 1932, was designed for guests seated on chairs rather than on the floor. Walking the circuit takes a visitor through three successive periods of building, Meiji, Taisho and early Showa, in order.

The Six Registered Entries

The six entries registered under the name Konishi Choyokan were all listed on 28 June 2017, each counted as one structure.

• Palace, 1912, single-storey timber with a partial basement, tiled roof, floor area 165 square metres
• Entrance Hall, about 1912, single-storey timber, cypress-bark roof under a temporary copper covering, floor area 21 square metres
• New Palace, 1932, single-storey timber, tiled roof, floor area 125 square metres
• Moon-Viewing Pavilion, 1932, single-storey timber, tiled roof, floor area 32 square metres
• Karamon Gate and Side Walls, 1914, gate of timber with a cypress-bark roof under temporary copper, 1.8 metres wide; side walls of timber with copper roofing, 8.9 metres long
• Gate and Roofed Earthen Wall, 1914, gate of timber with copper roofing, 1.6 metres wide; earthen wall with tiled roof, 37 metres long

The Gate and Roofed Earthen Wall qualified under the criterion for contributing to the historic character of the landscape. The other five qualified as models of design.

Visiting and Getting There

Konishi Choyokan is private property in a residential district and is not open on a regular basis. The gates stay shut and callers are not admitted. What can be seen from the public road is the earthen wall along the street and the roofs showing above it.

The interiors have been shown on occasional guided days run by the Cultural Properties Protection Division of the Osaka City Board of Education, with a curator leading each group. These are timed to the national simultaneous opening of modernisation heritage sites, held across Japan from 1 October to 30 November each year, and Konishi Choyokan took part in November 2023 and November 2025. Places are allocated by advance application on a reply-paid postcard, with a ballot when applications exceed capacity. Whether the day runs at all varies year to year, so check the city's announcements or call the division on 06-6208-9166. Photography rules are set for each individual opening.

The closest stop is Higashi-Tengachaya on the Hankai Tramway Uemachi Line, about 450 metres away, six minutes on foot. From Tennoji-Ekimae, the terminus beside Tennoji Station, the ride takes about five minutes. Shotenzaka on the Hankai Line is a similar distance. The tram charges a flat fare of 240 yen for adults and 120 yen for children, correct as of 14 September 2026. Tengachaya Station, served by the Nankai Main and Koya lines and the Osaka Metro Sakaisuji Line, lies about 800 metres away, roughly ten minutes on foot, and is the easier approach from Kansai International Airport or Namba.

The surrounding lanes are narrow and there is no visitor parking at Konishi Choyokan. Public transport is the sensible choice even on an open day.

Reading the Name

Konishi Choyokan is pronounced ko-ni-shi chō-yō-kan. All six entries in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database carry readings beginning konishi chōyō. The characters 朝陽 are sometimes read asahi, and the form Konishi Asahikan appears in places, but the registered reading is Chōyōkan, and the owning foundation uses it as well.