Former Yamadera Hotel

A Temple-Gate Inn at Yamadera

The Former Yamadera Hotel (旧山寺ホテル, Kyū Yamadera Hoteru) is an inn building at the foot of Risshakuji (Yamadera) in Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture, facing Yamadera Station on the JR Senzan Line, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 17, 2015 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a two-storey timber building with steel and iron sheet roofs and a building area of 423 square metres, built in the late Meiji period (1898 to 1912) and altered in 1916 and 1936; registration number 06-0161.

From Pilgrim Inn to Hotel

According to Yamagata Retro Hall, which runs the building, its forerunner was the Nakashimaya, an inn in Kawaramachi, the temple-gate town of Risshakuji. In August 1913 the Tachiya River flooded and swept the inn away, and it was rebuilt across the river on the present site. The building there had already been called the Yamadera Hotel by its owner in 1902, and the seventh head of the Nakashimaya took over the name.

In 1916 a two-storey inn and garden were completed and the business reopened as a high-class inn. At that time the main entrance was on the garden side, facing Risshakuji (Yamagata Retro Hall).

The Senzan Line reached Yamadera from Yamagata in 1933 and was completed through to Sendai in 1937, ushering in Yamadera's heyday as a tourist destination. Ahead of the full opening, in 1936, the hotel added a new wing and moved its main entrance to the east side, facing Yamadera Station (Yamagata Retro Hall).

Why It Was Registered

The Former Yamadera Hotel was registered as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes three two-storey blocks standing together on the riverbank below Risshakuji: the main building in the centre, the owner's residence to the west and the new wing to the east.

The original entrance is on the north side of the main building, and around the time the Senzan Line opened an entrance with a arched karahafu gable was added on the station side. The upper floor of the new wing has a geometric facade typical of its period, and the Agency regards the building as part of the historic character of the temple town.

What to Look For

Outside, look for the karahafu entrance on the station side and the geometric upper facade of the new wing (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Yamagata Retro Hall notes that the new wing was roofed in cement tiles, then the latest material; a shop window recalls the Western-style dining room that stood to the right of the entrance, and the telephone room for the hotel's line, "Yamadera No. 3", survives.

The old front entrance remains on the garden side as a back door. The Yamagata City Community Fund report notes that the building borrows Hojusan, the mountain of Risshakuji, as its backdrop, and that the view of it can be enjoyed from the upstairs windows.

Yamagata Retro Hall

The inn closed in 2007 and has been open since 2012 as Yamagata Retro Hall. It displays about 120 of Yuki Taisaku's pen drawings of buildings in Yamagata City, from a body of work recording Meiji to early Showa buildings across the prefecture (Yamagata Retro Hall).

According to the Yamagata City Community Fund, the Yamagata Historic Buildings Study Group re-roofed the main building in fiscal 2012 and opened the building and the drawings to the public free of charge. The residence on the left of the front is the owner's home and is not open (Yamagata Retro Hall).

Visiting

The operator gives admission as free, with opening hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closure in winter. This information dates from 2017, so check by phone before visiting (023-695-2216) (Yamagata Retro Hall).

The address is 4278 Yamadera, Yamagata City. The building stands directly opposite Yamadera Station on the JR Senzan Line; by bus, take the Yamadera service from the Yamako Bus Terminal to Yamadera Ekimae, and by car, follow the Yamadera road from the Onome junction on National Route 13 (Yamagata Retro Hall).