Iwata Family Residence Annex

A Garden Room of 1917

The Iwata Family Residence Annex (岩田家住宅離れ) is a detached garden room of a townhouse of 1917 in Tachikawacho, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on April 25, 2014 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 44 square metres; registration number 31-0186.

East of the Tea House

The Iwata Family Residence Annex stands east of the tea house of 1900, reached by a roofed passage (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a single-storey timber building with a hipped roof of pantiles.

Its six-mat main room faces north toward the garden, with a veranda and lean-to running around the northeast sides (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The south side faces a street, so it is closed with thick plastered earth walls, finished at the base with vertical boards and battens. The building opens to the garden and closes to the street.

Tottori Prefecture describes the house as the former home of a friend of the haiku poet Ozaki Hōsai, who often held haiku gatherings in the annex; the prefecture does not say whether that was this building of 1917.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that, together with the tea house, the annex forms a well-kept scene, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape. With the Taisho annex added to the Meiji tea house, the garden side of the property took its present shape.

What to Look For

The thing to compare is the garden side against the street side: verandas and eaves open to the northeast, while the south wall is closed with earth plaster above a skirting of vertical boards (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The vertical boards and battens along the base of the street-facing south wall are a finish the Agency specifically records.

Visiting

No official information on public access to the Iwata Family Residence Annex was found. According to the Agency, its south side faces a street, so the closed wall is the part visible from outside; the garden-facing room lies within the property.