Located about an hour and a half west of Sapporo, just outside Otaru, the Old Aoyama Villa is one of Japan’s remaining traditional villas. Named for the Aoyama family, it has a second name: the Herring Palace.

History

The villa’s history and Otaru’s history go hand in hand. Historically, Otaru and the village of Shukutsh are port and fishing havens. In the early 1910s, the herring catch was especially large, making one of the three herring tycoon families, the Aoyama family, very rich. They employed approximately 1,000 fishermen and routinely caught between 500,000 and 600,000 herrings, making them billions of yen in today’s money.

Finding their fortunes going up in the world, the Aoyama family started joining higher society in Japan. Aoyama Masakichi’s (the patriarch) daughter, Masae, visited the Honma mansion in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture when she was 17. She was blown away by the mansion there. Returning to Otaru, she wanted her family to have a more impressive villa. In 1917, after several years of prosperity, construction began on the Old Aoyama Villa. Masakichi and Masae may have come from fishing stock originally but had refined artistic and design states, incorporating them into the villa. They created Japanese nihonga paintings (using mineral inks) and calligraphy, so they also wanted intricate work for their home.

Under the direction of the chief Imperial carpenter at the time, Nenosuke Saito, the villa was completed in approximately 6 years. He directed 40 other carpenters, plasterers and joiners during this time. To put that into perspective, at the time $1 USD converted to ¥1.9531, which would have been about $153,600 USD at the time. Today that would be worth approximately $3.6 million USD! To put it into another perspective, the Isetan department store (the largest and most lavish at the time), built around the same time, cost about ¥500,000, so it was nearly as expensive.

The Architecture of Old Aoyama Villa

Like most houses built at the time, Old Aoyama Villa is made primarily of wood. It uses wood imported from Sakata and has a tiled roof, which is very rare in Hokkaido due to the snow.

The main wooden parts of the house (floors and pillars) are also lacquered, while the walls are hand-plastered. Even more impressively, the wide ceiling covering the building is built from a single piece of nightingale flooring and has no joints.

The inside of the house uses various types of wood for different rooms, including rosewood, blackwood, Bombay blackwood, and Japanese cedar. Fine, intricate fittings greet you everywhere you go on doors, ledges, and other bits of the house.

As Masakuchi and Masae envisioned, the ceilings, doors, and walls have paintings and calligraphy. They were commissioned by Gyokudo Kawai and his 10 students, who stayed at the villa for a month at the family’s invitation (and patronage).

(Unfortunately, photography is not allowed, so I do not have any interior photos.)

Old Aoyama Villa today

Today, Old Aoyama Villa is a Designated Historical Residence. It is a tangible cultural property of Otaru that represents the golden age of herring fishing in Shukutsu.

When you visit, you enter through the garden area at the front gate. Depending on the time of year, the garden, which surrounds the house on three sides, may be free, or you may have to pay to go in. Here, you can see many plants from around Japan, most of which flower between May and June. These include cherry blossoms in early May, peonies, roses, and hydrangeas.

Nowadays, an additional building sits on the premises: the restaurant. This gives near-panoramic views of the villa and serves food that connects with the area, consisting primarily of seafood and local, seasonal ingredients. I can recommend the herring soba and herring sushi, which are delicious!

Getting there and information

From Otaru Station, you can take the Number 2, 11, or 12 buses, getting off at the “Shukutsu 3 Chome” bus stop. From there, you will need to walk about 7 minutes up the slope to the villa.

If you have to pay to enter the garden, it will cost a couple hundred yen. This price fluctuates depending on what is in bloom. Once you enter, the house has a separate entrance, which costs ¥1,300 for adults. You buy this from a ticket machine within the newer building.

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