Shunpu Manriso

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

RosanjinShunpu ManrisoKasamafarmhouseIsamu Noguchi

Ibaraki · Kasama

36.3645°N, 140.2512°E

A quick walk through Shunpu Manriso tells you less than a slow one — the details are where the history actually lives.

Kitaoji Rosanjin was a calligrapher, a potter, a restaurateur and by most accounts extremely difficult to be around, and he is the person who did more than anyone to define how food and the vessel it sits in are thought about together in Japan. The thatched farmhouse he lived in at Kita-Kamakura was taken apart in 1965 and rebuilt here in Kasama as an annex of the Nichido Museum.

What you get is not a museum display but the house: the rooms he arranged, the stone garden he laid out, and a dry landscape garden by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi in the grounds. Rosanjin's own ceramics and calligraphy are shown inside. Kasama is a pottery town in its own right, which makes this a coherent place for the house to have ended up rather than an arbitrary one.

What to know before you go

When to go

April–May and late November | Avoid January–February unless visiting at a weekend

Opening hours

9:30 AM – 5:00 PM, last entry 4:30 PM | 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, last entry 3:30 PM (December–February)

Closed: Closed Mondays, or the following day when the Monday is a holiday | New Year | January and February: open weekends and holidays only

Time to allow

60–90 minutes

Fee

¥1,000 general | ¥800 aged 65 and over | ¥700 high school and university students | ¥200 elementary and junior high school students

Finding your way there

Directions

Shimoichige, Kasama, beside the Route 355 Kasama bypass. Car recommended. Closed Mondays, or the following day when the Monday is a holiday, and over the New Year; in January and February it opens only at weekends and on holidays. Admission ¥1,000 general, ¥800 for visitors aged 65 and over, ¥700 high school and university students, ¥200 elementary and junior high school students.

Historical notes & tips

**January and February are weekends only.** For two months of the year the house opens only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, on shorter hours. This is the single thing most likely to waste a trip. **Look at the garden as his work.** Rosanjin arranged the stones and the planting, and the dry garden in the grounds is by Isamu Noguchi. The house is the exhibit and the garden is part of it — do not treat the outside as circulation space. **Combine with Kasama pottery.** The town has a kiln district, the ceramics museum and the Nichido Museum's main building, and Rosanjin's presence here makes more sense once you have seen them. A full day is comfortable. **It is a relocation, not a site.** The building came from Kita-Kamakura in 1965. That is worth knowing so you read it as a house rather than as something that grew out of this particular hillside.

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