Hagiwara Family Residence (Former Oki Family Residence) Oshian Teahouse

What Is the Oshian Teahouse?

The Hagiwara Family Residence (Former Oki Family Residence) Oshian Teahouse (萩原家住宅（旧大木家住宅）翁姿庵茶室) is a late Edo-period (1830–1868) Chashitsu on a residential lot in Yumura, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2025.

Read Hagiwara-ke jūtaku (kyū Ōki-ke jūtaku) Ōshi-an chashitsu, it is a small freestanding building of 13 m² with the tea room at the north end and a Mizuya preparation room at the south. It was moved twice, in 1948 and 1991, before settling in its present place on the Hagiwara Family Residence grounds.

A Thatched Hipped Roof and a Wickerwork Eave

The Oshian Teahouse is a single-story timber building with a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof running north to south. The roof is Kayabuki thatch, currently covered with temporary steel sheeting, which is what the Agency for Cultural Affairs means by "thatched (temporarily roofed in steel)".

On the west side, toward the north end next to the tea room, is a Tsuchibisashi, a deep eave sheltering an earthen strip, whose underside is finished in ajiro wickerwork of thin woven strips. Woven ajiro was a favorite material for rustic, hermitage-style tea rooms.

A Tiny Tea Room and an Arched Doorway

Inside, the tea room lies to the north and a board-floored mizuya to the south. Between them is a katōguchi, a doorway whose top is plastered into a curved, flame-shaped arch, through which one passes between the preparation room and the tea room.

The tea room measures nijō daime mukōita: two full tatami mats for the guests plus a shortened daime mat, about three-quarters of the usual length, for the host, with a wooden board set in front of the host's place. It is a room for only a handful of guests.

What the Agency singles out is the choice of materials. The ceiling cornice is soot-darkened bamboo, and the ceiling boards are paulownia. For its careful workmanship and well-chosen materials within such a small space, the teahouse was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of form and design.

Visiting the Oshian Teahouse

The Hagiwara Family Residence (Former Oki Family Residence) Oshian Teahouse stands on private residential land and is not open to the public. There are no viewing days or fees, and the property cannot be entered (checked October 2026).

Photographs of the exterior seen from the northwest and of the interior are published in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and on Cultural Heritage Online, where the wickerwork eave and the tea room ceiling can be seen. Please do not approach the house to take photographs.