In Nagoya, the third metropolitan area in Japan, on the days of Hare (sacred period), they spend more extravagantly than in other cities, meanwhile, on the days of Ke (profane period), they live more frugally than in other cities. The big fluctuation range is the attraction of Nagoya. Each time I encounter Hare and Ke in various situations in Nagoya, I am impressed.
The best place in Nagoya for the culture of Hare is the Japanese-style restaurant Hasshokan, which opened in 1910 and received designation of a national important cultural property in 2020.
Matsu-no-Ma Room (Pine Room) : It was a room in the mansion built by the lumber merchant. When the ventilation window under the window is opened, a checkered pattern appears.
With the site of 13000 m2, it was built in the middle Meiji Era (the late 19th century) as the mansion of a lumber dealer Magosuke Shibata. Later an extension part and new wings added. Now, it is one of the leading Japanese-style restaurants in Japan in terms of architecture and garden. In particular, many rooms designed by architect Sutemi Horiguchi raise its prestige.
The lumber dealer gave the name Hassho-kan. There are three theories about the origin of the name. The first was the theory that the site was a scenic spot where they could see mountains in eight directions due to the hilly landscape. The second was the theory that it had eight splendid views on the site. The third was that the lumber dealer took over the land from the Koshoji temple after having donated, the Hassho-kan later assumed the guest-house-like role of Koshoji Temple, and Unsho Ritsushi, who was one of the high priests and stayed here, wrote the Zen word "Hassho-do (eight right paths)" on the plaque.
After operating as a Japanese-style Inn for a long time, it became a full-time Japanese-style restaurant. However, it still accepted lodgings from its patrons. Until a while ago, there were guests who used it. Going back in time, the Miyuki-no-Ma Room, which Sutemi Horiguchi designed first of all, and won the Architectural Institute of Japan Award, was built as a lodging for the Showa Emperor and Empress when they attended the National Sports Festival held in Nagoya in 1950.
The Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) is famous for combination of the Japanese-traditional space interpreted by modernism and the fragments of ancient dyed and woven fabrics as Indonesian chintz attached to the sliding doors and transom. Because of the summer, they replaced sliding doors and shoji screens with bamboo blinds and sliding doors. The space became more transparent and looked cool. I felt the garden closer.
At the time of construction in 1950, shortly after the war, the best materials were available despite the lack of supplies. However, Horiguchi did not fall into the fossilized famous materials supremacism and expressed the traditional architecture of the new era through space composition. In the hot season, the fabrics only remained in the transom and part of the cabinet, but they will return in the fall and must change the impression of the room. It was one of the mechanisms to produce time changes like traditional Japanese architecture.
The Kiku-no-Ma Room (Chrysanthemum Room) was more modernized, as Horiguchi amplified the lattice of shoji screens into every motif in the room. So, despite the summer, they didn't change the shoji screens into bamboo sliding doors in this room since those would reduce the effect of this space. The Japanese sense of capturing the seasonal changes that remained in the Miyuki no Ma room changed into an immutable sense of time, and modernism prevailed in tradition.
I visited during a hot day of nearly 35 degrees C. I got exhausted. There was a time until mealtime. "Would you like to have a glass of water?” I asked. (In Japan, a free water is an ordinary service.) The staff answered, "We do not offer such a service." I was impressed that it was Nagoya that did not provide any useless service to a chance customer.
Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room)
Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : It consist of the main room with 16-tatami-mat room, the next room with 10-tatami-mat room, and the passageway with 16 tatami mats. During the summer, the shoji screens replaced the bamboo blinds to create a cool atmosphere, and the famous fusuma sliding doors, on which Sutemi Horiguchi depicted landscapes abstractly with ancient fabrics, were also removed and made appear a large airy space. The light ceiling that is said as the earliest example in the world brighten up the room. When it was completed, it was brighter because of new unfinished wood, and the previous proprietress who saw it said it looked a little cheap.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : Sutemi Horiguchi reconstructed the design of the Katsura Rikyuu Imperial Villa and Rinshunkaku Palace in Sankeien Garden into modern designs. The opening in the toko-no-ma (alcove), which has been hollowed out into a beautiful square, derives from the Koshoin of the Katsura Rikyuu IImperial Villa, meanwhile the wooden board and batten ceiling originates in the fylfot ceiling in Rinshunkaku Palace. However, the fylfot ceiling, which used to create a rotating movement, was divided by a modern light ceiling with shoji screens in the center, and the allocation of the battens was uneven, resulting in a leap into a different sense.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : The circular windows called Shitajimado, which are arranged in Tsuke-shoin (buit-in table space), derives from the windows in Shoi-ken Tea Room of the Katsura Rikyuu Imperial Villa.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : See the passageway of the tatami mats and the garden beyond the bamboo blinds from the main room.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : See the garden from the passageway of the tatami mats. Each room in the Hassyo-kan Restaurant has an open terrace since Sutemi Horiguchi liked to install it. The open terrace in this room was based on the Tsukimidai terrace (moon-viewing terrace) in the Katsura Riyuu Imperial Villa.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : See the garden from the passageway of the tatami mats. Due to the long glass door, it had been unusually cold in winter. In recent years, it has been replaced with vacuum glass, and the cold has been improved considerably. At the time of completion, the center crosspieces that had been in the glass windows have now been removed, creating a close connection between the interior and the garden.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : On the transoms of the main room, ancient fabrics are attached. The battens on the ceiling are unevenly distributed.Miyuki-no-Ma Room (Imperial Visit Room) : See the ground shelf and the Shitajimado window beside the Toko-no-Ma (alcove). On the ground shelf, ancient fabrics are attached.
Kiku-no-Ma Room (Chrysanthemum Room)
Kiku-no-Ma Room (Chrysanthemum Room) : It is renovated by Sutemi Horiguchi in 1958. The two rooms of the lumber merchant's mansion were converted into one room, and the ceiling and fittings were redesigned while remaining the most of the original structure. The motif of lattice on shoji bars and coffered ceiling lattices are repeated in the room, and the tatami floor divided into four in the Toko-no-Ma (alcove) also evokes the lattice. The lattice of the light ceiling is not enable to remove, and a retraction hole is provided inside the ceiling to insert the fluorescent lamp between the lattices and rotate for replacing it. Fluorescent lamp (currently LED) are also installed inside the shoji screens on the transom to create light and shade. The tatami floor in the Toko-no-Ma (alcove) is carried out in the Taisho era, so unlike modern tatami floors, it is fluffy and soft.Kiku-no-Ma Room (Chrysanthemum Room) : The lattice motif was repeated many times in the shoji screens on the vertical surface, the light ceilings, the coffered ceilings, and the rod-rim ceiling on the horizontal surface, creating a modern impression.Kiku-no-Ma Room (Chrysanthemum Room) : See from the main room to the next room. Sutemi Horiguchi designed the fusuma sliding doors with gold gilt paper. Because of the damage, the original paper of the two rooms was used only for the fusuma sliding doors in the main room, and white Japanese paper was pasted for a deficiency. If I hadn't known about the story, I would have thought that the design like pasting with an arithmetic progression was made by Sutemi Horiguchi. The transom derives from the original mansion and was produced by a famous joiner more than 100 years. Utilizing the inside of the light ceiling in the next room, an air conditioner that blows out from the wall is installed in the upper part of the transom. The light ceiling in the next room does not cast the shadow of the built-in air conditioner. That is like magic.
Sakura-no-Ma Room (Cherry Room)
Sakura-no-Ma Room (Cherry Room) : This room was added by Sutemi Horiguchi in 1958. It consists of the main room with13.5 tatami mats, the next room with 7.5 tatami mats, and the entrance with 2 tatami mats. The impression changes considerably depending on the viewing angle.Sakura-no-Ma Room (Cherry Room) : The composition of the oblique ceiling and flat ceiling is traditional, but by the effect of the light ceilings on the edge and rise of the flat ceiling, the room is transformed into a modern space. Similar to the Kiku-no-Ma Room, the shoji screens with fluorescent lights (now LED) inside were installed on the transom, and that create a somewhat different atmosphere. The shoji screens on the interior porch was designed by Sutemi Horiguchi so that it can be neatly stored away. Only the Sakura-no-Ma Room and the Miyuki no Ma Room use special fire alarms with air pipes, and the presence of fire alarms cannot be seen unless you know it. Now the craftsmen with technique are no longer available, and the system cannot be newly built. That conveys the high aesthetic sense of the owner for space.Sakura-no-Ma Room (Cherry Room) : From this angle, the design is dense and complex. Since the Hassho-kan Restaurant was Japanese-style inns, sanitary facilities and storage spaces required by the Ryokan Law were provided behind each fusuma and shoji screens. The proprietress talked that the convenience of the guest room was very good for both the customer and the management side. After closing the inn, the owner removed unnecessary equipment and modified it to suit Sutemi Horiguchi's space. According to the proprietress, many architects who visited here said that the round lights were the latest lighting fixtures imported from Germany at the time of construction. The lightings are installed on the rise side of the lattice louver on the left side and the right side on the flat ceiling. According to Sutemi Horiguchi, those are a device to keep the ceiling from getting too dark.Sakura-no-Ma (Cherry Room) : It is said that a triangular shelf derives from the shelf in Shugakuin Riyuu Imperial Villa. On the ground shelf, ancient fabrics are attached.
Zangetu-no-Ma Room (Morning Moon Room)
Zangetu-no-Ma Room (Morning Moon Room) : It was built in 1950 by Sutemi Horiguchi. It design originates in the Zangetsu-tei Tea Room in the head residence of the Omotesenke school of tea ceremony.
Matsu-no-Ma Room (Pine Room)
Matsu-no-Ma Room (Pine Room) : It was built in the middle Meiji Era (the late 19th century). The main room has the passageway and the ventilation window called Muso-mado.
Inaka-ya (Country House)
Inaka-ya (Country House) : See the interior of a thatched Inaka-ya (Country House). Its seat surrounds the sunken hearth. The house was relocated from Shiga Prefecture in the 1920's. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, Masuda Takashi, also known as Masuda Don-ou, was evacuated to Nagoya. He was a great businessman and was called the greatest tea master since Sen no Rikyu. In a country house owned by the Takamatsu family near the Hassho-kan Restaurant, he held the Don-ou sytle tea ceremony for Nagoya financiers. The founder of the Hassho-kan Restaurant liked the country house and relocated a similar country house here. Later, the famous entrepreneurs, who were also the famous masters of tea ceremony, such as Yasuzaemon Matsunaga, Sokuo Hatakeyama, and Ichizo Kobayashi enjoyed tea here, artist Rosanjin Kitaoji made pottery, and artist Isamu Noguchi stayed here.
Garden
Garden : See the Inaka-ya (Country House) from the garden.Garden : The raised floor building on the right is the Miyuki-no-Ma Room, with a protruding open terrace modeled after the Tsukimidai terrace (moon-viewing terrace) in the Katsura Riyuu Imperial Villa.Garden : See the garden from the open terrace in the Miyuki-no-Ma Room. The topography is the original landscape of this place. When the garden was created, most stones were brought from this region, but now stones from other regions were added. The Hassho-kan restaurant took over those when a nearby rich family residence was rebuilt into an apartment. In the same way, stone Buddhas were also inherited and placed everywhere. The garden is always ever-changing.Garden : See the approach. A guest can circulate the entire garden. The maples are wonderful, and it must create a spectacular view in the autumn. The thatched roof on the right is the Inaka-ya (Country House).Garden : See the approach. A splendid cedar moss grows. The staffs carefully take care of it every day.Garden : A stream is also created.Garden : Whitecaps are foaming in the stream.Garden : See the New Tatami Room Wing that used to be a separate building once. Thanks to Sutemi Horiguchi's advice, it connected with the Main Wing as today.
Entrance
Entrance : It maintains the old-style entrance.
Gate
Gate : The plaque on the gate was written by Unsho Ritsushi Discipliner. One of the theories about the origin of Hassho-kan's name, is the Zen word "Hassho-do" that means eight right paths. This would be the plaque ?
Logo
Staff's costumes : Hassho-kan's logo written on the costume is cool.
