Nakayama Family Residence Bathhouse

What Is the Nakayama Family Residence Bathhouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence Bathhouse (中山家住宅湯殿, Nakayama-ke Jūtaku Yudono) is a small late Edo-period bath building on the Nakayama estate in Bessho, Matsubara City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2004.

It stands southwest of the main house, just south of the reception rooms added in 1830. The building is a single-story timber structure 2 bays long and 1 bay deep, with a building area of 11 square meters and a gabled kirizuma-zukuri roof of pantiles.

A Bathhouse in the Sukiya Manner

What sets the Nakayama Family Residence Bathhouse apart is the refinement lavished on a utilitarian building. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that its structural members are polished natural logs, the vocabulary of the sukiya tea-house style, and that there is no ceiling: the roof framing is left exposed as a finished surface.

Its position next to the best rooms of the house suggests a bath for the family and their guests rather than for the workforce.

Details Worth Knowing

The outer walls are shikkui lime plaster finished with a brush, leaving fine parallel striations that catch the light rather than a polished face.

The dressing area is just two tatami mats, but both long sides are fitted with paper shoji screens, making a bright, open room out of what is usually a closed-in space.

The bath itself is a tameburo, a tub filled by hand with water heated elsewhere. A separate doorway was provided for carrying in the hot water, a small reminder of how many hands a household like this relied on.

Can You See the Bathhouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence Bathhouse stands deep inside the estate and cannot be seen from outside. The residence is an occupied family home and is closed to visitors; the Nakayama Family Residence page describes what is visible from the street.