What Is International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo?
International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo (国際基督教大学泰山荘高風居, Kōfūkyo) is a thatched, hermitage-style tea house on the International Christian University campus in Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, built in 1925 around the One-Mat Room study that Matsuura Takeshiro created in 1886, moved to its present site around 1936 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1999.
Of the six buildings at Taizanso, this is the one the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes as the core of the villa, and it served as the main tea room at gatherings. It is a single-storey timber building under a thatched Irimoya-zukuri roof, with a footprint of 39 square metres. Inside, an earth-floored entry (Doma), a 3-mat preparation room (Mizuya) and a 6-mat tea room (Chashitsu) run in a single line, with the One-Mat Room, the Ichijojiki, attached along one side.
The Ichijojiki is a study built around a single tatami mat. Boards frame the mat on all sides, and the room holds an alcove (Tokonoma), a small household shrine and a bookshelf. It cannot stand on its own. It was formed by enclosing the space beneath an eave hung from a larger building, and today Kofukyo is what holds it up.
A Study Made of Donated Timber
Matsuura Takeshiro (1818–1888) explored Ezo, Japan's northern frontier, in the last decades of the shogunate and is remembered as the man who named Hokkaido. As he approached seventy he designed this study as the place to spend his last years. He wrote to friends and acquaintances made on his travels, asking for old timber from shrines, temples and other historic buildings, and after several years of collecting he added the Ichijojiki to his house in Kanda Gokencho in 1886.
Some 90 pieces went into the room, the oldest said to trace back to the Hakuho period of the late 7th century. Mokuhen Kanjin, the booklet Matsuura published in 1887, is said to list 89 pieces from 66 donors, recording where each came from and where it was used.
After Matsuura's death the room passed to Tokugawa Yorimichi (1872–1925), head of the Kishu branch of the Tokugawa family. In 1908 it was moved to the back garden of the Nanki Bunko, a private library on the Tokugawa estate at Azabu Iikura, and in 1924 it followed the family to Yoyogi-Uehara. In 1925 Kofukyo, a tea room and preparation room likewise built from old timber Yorimichi had gathered, went up around it, and the study became one corner of the new building.
After Yorimichi died, Yamada Keisuke, then laying out Taizanso, bought Kofukyo and had it moved to Mitaka around 1936. Ownership later passed to Nakajima Aircraft and, after the war, to ICU. The room came through the Great Kanto Earthquake and the air raids on Tokyo, though Matsuura himself is said to have asked in his will that his body be cremated with its timbers. That wish was never carried out.
The Matsuura researcher Yoshida Takezo is credited with confirming in 1963 that the Ichijojiki still stood on the ICU campus. Kofukyo and the study were restored over two years beginning in 1979.
Why It Is Registered
International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo was entered on the national register on October 14, 1999 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building), register number 13-0057, under the criterion of being difficult to reproduce.
That criterion fits because the value lies in the materials. Thanks to Matsuura's own record, you can trace which post or board in the One-Mat Room came from which shrine or temple, something very few buildings allow. Kofukyo was likewise assembled from salvaged timber, so neither part could be rebuilt with the same materials. Two collectors, a Meiji antiquarian and the head of a former daimyo house, left their mark on a single structure.
The moves are part of the story too. From Kanda to Azabu, on to Yoyogi-Uehara and finally Mitaka, the study changed site three times while changing hands. Scholars who have toured the interior report that the building has been turned 90 degrees clockwise from its original orientation, so its present east side was once its north.
What to Look For
Only the exterior can be seen. The thatched hip-and-gable roof crouches low against the slope, and among the trees the building looks more like a farmhouse than a lord's tea room. Kofukyo stands apart from the rest of Taizanso, partway down the bluff, and as you descend the path you can see how the One-Mat Room leans against its host. On that side there is no veranda, only a short earthen eave (Tsuchibisashi).
For the interior, visitors' accounts fill in the picture. Boards about 15 centimetres wide surround the mat, so the floor comes to roughly one and a half mats. The frame of the small window beside the alcove is a board from a study hall at Kofukuji, donated by the antiquarian Ninagawa Noritane, and the lintel over the doorway from the corridor is recorded as timber from the Buddha hall of Tofukuji. The little sliding doors of a cupboard in the preparation room are said to be papered with pages of Hatsuun Yokyo, a printed catalogue of Matsuura's collection.
For the origin of each piece, the museum's publications are the place to start, above all Henry D. Smith II's bilingual study Taizansō and the One-mat Room (1993).
Visiting Kofukyo
Of the six buildings, International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo is the hardest to see. The interior is closed, and the One-Mat Room cannot be entered. The exterior is shown only to people on the reserved guided tour held during the annual special open days; even on those days it is left out of free viewing.
The tour, led by students and staff, takes in all six buildings from outside. The ground near Kofukyo, at the foot of the bluff, is especially uneven, so wear shoes you can walk in and leave heels at home to spare the moss. Photography is not allowed during the tour. Directions to the campus and details of how to apply are on the International Christian University Taizanso page.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo and see the One-Mat Room?
- No. The interiors of Kofukyo and the Ichijojiki are closed to the public. Even the exterior can only be seen by joining the reserved guided tour held on the annual special open days.
- How is International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo related to the One-Mat Room (Ichijojiki)?
- The Ichijojiki is a one-tatami study that Matsuura Takeshiro added to his house in 1886. It is a lean-to room that cannot stand alone. In 1925 Tokugawa Yorimichi built Kofukyo, with a tea room and preparation room, and the study was incorporated into one corner of it. Today Kofukyo supports the study.
- When was International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo moved to Mitaka?
- The businessman Yamada Keisuke bought it from the Tokugawa residence in Yoyogi-Uehara while building Taizanso and had it moved to the present site around 1936.
- Can I take photos of International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo?
- The exterior can only be seen on the reserved guided tour during the special open days, and photography is banned during the tour for safety reasons.
- Why is International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- Both the One-Mat Room, built from timber donated by shrines and temples across Japan, and Kofukyo, also built from salvaged timber, could not be rebuilt with the same materials. It was registered on October 14, 1999 under the criterion of being difficult to reproduce.
Basic Information
| Name | International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo (国際基督教大学泰山荘高風居) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-10-2 Osawa, Mitaka City, Tokyo (International Christian University campus) |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered 1999/10/14 (Heisei 11) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, single storey, thatched roof, building area 39 square metres |
| Owner | International Christian University (educational corporation) |
| Public Access | Interior closed. Exterior viewable only on the reserved guided tour during special open days |
References
- International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001368
- International Christian University Taizanso Kofukyo (Cultural Heritage Online)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/137138
- Buildings of Taizanso (ICU Hachiro Yuasa Memorial Museum)
- https://subsites.icu.ac.jp/yuasa_museum/taizanso_web/build.html
- Why does ICU preserve Matsuura Takeshiro's One-Mat Room? (International Christian University)
- https://www.icu.ac.jp/about/whyicu/page_55.html
- Taizanso Special Opening 2026 (ICU Hachiro Yuasa Memorial Museum)
- https://subsites.icu.ac.jp/yuasa_museum/taizanso_web/2026koukai.html
- Excursion to Matsuura Takeshiro's One-Mat Room (Japan Society for Cultural Resources Studies)
- https://bunkashigen.jp/excursion/014.html
Last verified: 2026.09.24
