Spots Topics

Zagyoso is located right across from Seikenji Temple. It is the reconstructed villa of Saionji-Kinmochi, which was reconstructed in 2004 based on the original floor plan. The original building has been moved to Meiji-Mura, a theme park in Aichi Prefecture featuring historically important Japanese buildings.

When Saionji-Kinmochi built this villa at the age of 70 in 1920, he was a Genro, or a retired statesman advising to the Emperor. After leading a busy life serving in important roles such as the Minister of Education, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister in the Japanese government, Saionji hoped to lead a quiet  relaxed life enjoying the beautiful view of the beach in front of the villa. The name of the villa ZAGYOSO means a house “to sit in relaxed and fish”.

As Saionji liked bamboo and cedar, these materials are used abundantly in the house.  

On the second floor of the villa, there are a guest room and Saionji’s private room. When visitors look out of the window of the second floor, they now see a playground, a building, and a highway. However, those did not exist when Saionji built the villa. He and his visitors enjoyed the view of beautiful beach lagoon in front and MIHO-NO-MATSUBARA or the Miho Pine Tree Groves far away on the horizon.    

On the first floor are his private room, an anteroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, his three maids’ rooms, and a western-style wing. The western-style wing was added to the original building in 1930 when Saionji became 80 and was not physically able  to meet his guests on the second floor TATAMI room. 

In his bathroom window, there is bamboo latticework, with  a steel pipe in each piece of  bamboo. This is to make the lattice stylish but strong enough to prevent anyone from getting into the house while Saionji was taking a bath. Saionji, who studied at the Université de Paris in France in his twenties, had good friends there including a French Prime Minister, Georges Benjamin Clemenceau. When World War I ended, Saionji went to Paris to conclude a peace treaty. He was a liberal person who knew the world very well and was strongly against the war. Thus, he was constantly targeted by militants.

He survived potential assassins and lived until the age of 91. Saionji passed away in this Zagyoso on November 24, 1940.