A Corner of Kyoto Built Beside an Izu Hot Spring
Momiji is a small guest wing at Arai Ryokan in Shuzenji, completed in 1927. It has only two rooms, an eight-mat and a six-mat in sequence, wrapped on the south and east by a wide veranda. What makes it worth pausing over is not its size but its accent. The building was dressed to look as though it had been lifted from Kyoto and set down in the hills of Izu.
The roof tiles were brought from Kyoto. The eaves are finished in copper sheet. The outer walls carry a deep red-ochre wash, the pigment known as bengara. Together these choices give the wing a restrained Kyoto air that sets it apart from the plainer timber elsewhere on the grounds.
Why the Details Earned It Cultural-Property Status
When Momiji was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 1998, the criterion applied was that it serves as a model of design. That phrase rewards refinement rather than grandeur. A two-room wing of 82 square metres was judged to hold its own because every surface was considered: the imported tiles, the copper-clad eaves, the bengara walls, the double veranda that lets light and garden in on two sides.
The wing sits to the northwest of a building called Kansenro and is joined to it by a covered passage. That linking of separate structures by roofed corridors is a habit of the whole inn, which grew building by building across the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras rather than rising as a single block. Momiji is one paragraph in that longer sentence, and a carefully written one.
What to Look For
Step onto the veranda and notice how the two rooms open in series, so that from the inner six-mat room you look out through the eight-mat room to the garden beyond. The wide engawa on the south and east sides was not decoration; it moderated sun and rain and gave guests a place to sit at the threshold between inside and out.
Outside, find the colour. Bengara red weathers slowly and shifts with the light, warmer at dusk, quieter under rain. Look up at the copper eaves, which have taken on their own patina over the decades. These are the marks of an inn that chose its materials for how they would age, not only for how they looked when new.
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Q&A
- What makes Momiji feel like Kyoto?
- Its roof tiles were sourced from Kyoto, its eaves are finished in copper, and its outer walls carry the deep red bengara pigment. These choices give it a refined Kyoto character distinct from the rest of the inn.
- How large is the wing?
- It is a single-storey timber building of about 82 square metres, containing an eight-mat and a six-mat room in sequence, with a wide veranda on the south and east sides.
- When was it built and registered?
- It was completed in 1927 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in September 1998, together with fourteen other Arai Ryokan buildings.
- Why was it recognised as a cultural property?
- It was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of design, in recognition of the care taken with its materials and finishing rather than its scale.
- Can I stay in this wing?
- Arai Ryokan is a working inn whose registered buildings include guest wings. Room availability changes, so it is best to ask the inn directly when booking if you hope to stay in a particular building.
Basic Information
| Name | Arai Ryokan Momiji |
|---|---|
| Location | 995 Kosaka, Shuzenji, Izu City, Shizuoka Prefecture |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 2 September 1998; announced 25 September 1998) |
| Registration No. | 22-0023 |
| Built | 1927 (Showa 2) |
| Count | 1 building |
| Structure | Timber, single storey, tiled roof; building area approx. 82 m² |
| Registration criterion | A model of design |
| Owner | Arai Ryokan Ltd. |
| Access | About 10 min by bus from Shuzenji Station (Izuhakone Railway), then a short walk from the Shuzenji Onsen stop |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database — Arai Ryokan Momiji
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00000782
- Arai Ryokan — Guide to the Registered Cultural Properties
- https://arairyokan.net/bunka.htm
- Arai Ryokan — Wikipedia (Japanese)
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新井旅館
Last verified: 2026.07.11