017.Takada 05.Ukiyo (Japan)

2023-02-06

Ukiyo is a restaurant that represents Takada.

See Myoko-no Ma Room (Mt. Myoko-san Room) on the 4th floor. The bamboo suddenly crosses the ceiling diagonally to indicate the direction of Mt. Myoko-san.

Ukiyo is on the street approaching to Jokoji Temple. When proceeding the street to the opposite direction, you will find a bridge named Kanki-bashi bridge. Kanki is the honorific mountain name prefixed to the Joko-ji temple's name and means to celebrate rebirth in the Pure Land. A copy of that bridge is built at the entrance of Ukiyo, making Ukiyo a special place in this world (Ukiyo) against the sacred Joko-ji Temple as the other world.

It is a four-story wooden building and a splendid example of Japanese-style restaurant architecture that has been expanded as it prospered. Before the coronavirus epidemic, the restaurant opened only the 1st and 2nd floors with large guest rooms. Due to the disappearance of banquet demand, it restored the 3rd and 4th-floor rooms, which had been closed for a long time, and reopened them to attract individual customers. The main large hall on the 2nd-floor is a splendid centerpiece of a 153 tatami room with a coffered ceiling and no pillars. The floor slopes upward so that attendees in the back can be seen from the main guest seat. Due to the long-span structure, the weight of the snow in one of Japan's heaviest snowfall areas is visible, and the lintels of the shoji were greatly curved.

On the other hand, the other guest rooms are eccentric with elaborate designs associated with the beauty of natures. In the staircase hall that serves as a passage to all the guest rooms, the balustrade uses the shaft of a water wheel, and the center pier is the wings of a water wheel. The next room is Suisya-no Ma Room (Water Wheel Room), which utilized water wheel parts in various parts of the room. The 4th floor's innermost guest room is Myoko-no Ma Room (Mt. Myoko-san Room), which floats on the downtown. The roofs of buildings in the downtown and Mt. Myoko-san are seen from the corridors surrounding four sides of the room. The bamboo suddenly crosses the ceiling diagonally to indicate the direction of Mt. Myoko-san. In the snow-covered winter, the world of all white would appear and remind the pure land above the clouds. At the deepest part of Ukiyo as this world, this architecture leads to Joko-ji Temple as the other world again.

Ukiyo is the leader of the network of historic Japanese restaurants, Hyakunen Ryotei (one hudred years' restaurants). When Ukiyo consulted with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology about support, a government official suggested that, although it would be difficult to support for a single restaurant, the support might be possible if a lot of restaurants acted together. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology is sometimes eccentric.

Exterior Apperance