Kyu Asakura House

On Friday December 14th, I went with two other members of the Exploring Tokyo class to visit the Kyu Asakura House in the Daikanyama area. We walked there from the JR Ebisu station. Like most neighborhoods in Tokyo, Ebisu seemed to have it's own unique feel. To me, Ebisu seemed calmer than other parts of Tokyo, but still had a big city feel. All sorts of people were walking around that afternoon. One person, Japanese, even asked to take a picture of us since there were doing a project where they were taking pictures of different people he encountered in the city.

Anyway, for only a 100 yen, we were able to explore the beautiful garden grounds and the inside of the Kyu Asakura House as well. Since we went late Friday afternoon, there were not too many other people there. We weren't the only ones visiting however. First we decided to walk around the garden area while it was still light outside. We walked through a small gate into a lush area. I was surprised at how many trees still had leaves changing color since a good amount of trees had already lost their leaves in Tokyo. It was so beautiful!  I was also struck by how the garden had different levels. According to the pamphlet, the garden "follows the cliff line in the design of its paths" which was really true. There was one path which lead around the main house, a path the lead around the middle area, and then another path which followed the slant of the ground further down. As the sun started to go down, the area became even more beautiful. I'm glad we went there when we did!

After exploring every path in the garden, we finally went inside the actual house. According to the Pamphlet, the Kyu Asakura House is an "Important Cultural Property" which means is has a "particular significance academically and in terms of cultural history." The house was apparently built by Torajiro Asakura, who was a Chairman of Tokyo's Preferential Assembly and served in the Shibuya City assembly as well, in 1919, during the Taisho era. The house also survived the Great Kanto Earthquake as well as the bombings during WWII. Therefore, the house preserves the sense of the Taisho era.

The house itself was very large. There were two stories and many rooms. When we first walked in there was a western styled room on the right called yohma which was used for visitors and as the butler's office. To the left there was the drawing room, ohsetsuma, where guests would be greeted. Straight from the entrance was the diichi kaigishitsu or the conference room. The conference room was pretty large; we actually thought it could have been used to hold small parties in! There was also a beautiful wall with glass doors that looked out upon the garden which was beautiful. From there we walked down a small wooden hallway, which had views of the inner garden which is surrounded by the house, and went to the suginoma,or the "cedar rooms" which were designed in the sukiya-zashi style to show off cedar grain and texture. According to the pamphlet, "Torajiro would use this area to meet his private guests coming to make petitions." Other rooms were also located on the first floor, such as the storeroom, which we were not allowed access to. There was also an upstairs area which held some Japanese styled rooms with tatami mats (as the cedar and drawing room also had), but it was not as big as the first floor.

Overall, I thought the house was beautiful. These types of houses definitely don't seem to be common now. It was pretty big and had many rooms. I can't imagine what it would be like to live there. It was also interesting to see how Western influences had started to appear in houses of this time (such as the Western styled room and the garage area outside). I'm glad I was able to go to this house!