Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki

What Is the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki?

The Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki (今半本店東奥座敷, Imahan Honten Higashi-okuzashiki) is a single-storey, sukiya-style timber wing of private tatami rooms built in about 1951 behind the sukiyaki restaurant Imahan Honten in Asakusa 1-chome, Taito City, Tokyo, and it was entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on February 27, 2023. At 53 m² it is the largest of the restaurant's three inner zashiki wings.

It is registration number 13-0473, under the criterion of serving as a model of design, and was renovated in 2014. The gabled roof was originally tiled and is now steel sheet. The Agency for Cultural Affairs photographs the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki from the courtyard behind the restaurant.

Pine, Bamboo and Plum

The Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki has three 6-mat rooms set along a corridor on the north side, which has its own entrance. The rooms are named Matsu, Take and Ume, pine, bamboo and plum, and the Agency notes that the alcove posts, the ceiling battens and other members use the material each room is named after.

Pine, bamboo and plum together form the classic Japanese emblem of good fortune, the "three friends of winter", familiar from New Year decorations and wedding banquets. Naming the rooms this way and then building them from the matching materials is a host's gesture, much as the West wing next door divides its rooms by three kinds of cedar.

A Middle Room Without an Alcove

The detail to look for in the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki is in the middle. Matsu and Ume each have a Tokonoma alcove, but Take, the bamboo room between them, has none. It works as a connecting room.

Used separately, the three rooms of the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki seat small sukiyaki parties. With the partitions opened, Matsu, Take and Ume become one long hall for a large banquet. The Agency describes the layout as answering both needs, and the generous 6-mat rooms, larger than those in the other two wings, point the same way.

The corridor's own entrance fits that purpose too, giving a large party a direct way into the back of the restaurant.

Visiting the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki

The Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki is in use as private dining rooms, so you can only go inside as a diner with a reservation. Rooms cannot be requested when booking, so there is no guarantee of being seated here. The wing faces a courtyard in the middle of the block and is unlikely to be visible from the street. Ask the staff before taking photos.

If you are seated in the Imahan Honten East Inner Zashiki, compare the alcove posts in Matsu and Ume and notice how the bamboo room joins them. Hours and directions are on the Imahan Honten page.