Jizoji Temple Hojuin Annex

A Private Room Under a Yakusugi Ceiling

Jizoji Temple Hojuin Annex (地蔵寺寳珠院離れ, Jizōji Hōjuin Hanare) is a small two-storey wooden annex built in the Taisho era (1912 to 1926) in Matsushima-cho, Komatsushima City, Tokushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 November 2016. It is the private wing added behind the main house of the Hojuin residence owned by Jizoji Temple.

It stands at the back of the main house toward the east and connects directly to the main house's inner veranda, so you reach it by walking along the veranda rather than crossing open ground. The roof is hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) in pan tiles (Sangawara-buki), a deliberate change from the gabled, round-tiled roof of the main house. The footprint is only 24 square metres, yet it rises two storeys.

The ground floor holds a living room, a lavatory and a bathroom, gathering sleeping, washing and bathing into one small building. The upper floor is a single room of eight and a half tatami mats, and that is where the care went. The ceiling is a batten ceiling (Saobuchi-tenjō) boarded with yakusugi, and the walls are finished in paper. The official record singles out both.

Evidence of a House That Kept Growing

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Jizoji Temple Hojuin Annex as an annex of fine quality that shows how the house extended its domestic functions, and registered it as a "model of form and design."

The main house of 1904 was already a substantial home, with a formal reception room below and a large room above. In the Taisho era this annex was added, taking rooms for family or honored guests, and the bath and lavatory, out of the main house. In the same period the kamaya took over the kitchen work of the main house's earthen-floored area, and a guest lavatory went up as its own small building. Of all the Hojuin buildings, the annex shows most plainly how a late-Meiji house became a more complex Taisho household.

Yakusugi is old-growth cedar from Yakushima, from trees often more than a thousand years old. Its grain is fine and resinous, and on a flat ceiling board the figure shows up dark and dense. Using it in a room of eight and a half mats says a good deal about what the owners wanted the room to be.

What to Look For

From outside, the clue is a separate hipped roof rising behind the main house. Its shape and tiles differ from the main roof, which is how you can tell it was added later.

Inside, the ceiling and walls upstairs matter most: the spacing of the battens, the grain of the yakusugi boards, the soft surface of the papered walls. The separate bath and lavatory downstairs are concrete evidence of how daily life in the house was reorganized.

Seeing the Annex

The Jizoji Temple Hojuin Annex stands deep inside the lot, behind the main house, and only part of its roof can be glimpsed from the road. There are no scheduled openings; contact Jizoji Temple in advance if you hope to see it.

The building has been part of a lived-in residence. Please do not enter the gate without permission.