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Minaguchi-Ya is just a 10-minute walk from Okitsu Station, which is the next station after Shimizu Station on Tokaido Line. It is now opened to the public as a museum, but was a historical Japanese Inn until 1985.

Oliver Statler, who came to Japan with the U.S. army immediately after World War 2, enjoyed the hospitality and landscape of the place so much that he wrote the best-selling book, The Japanese Inn. Many foreign travelers who read his book visited Okitsu and stayed in Minaguchi-Ya.  In 1985, the inn closed due to slow business caused by the newly built highway which blocked the view of the beach. 

Minaguchi-Ya is located along Tokaido Road, the old main road that connected Edo (the former name for Tokyo) and Kyoto. Ieyasu Tokugawa, who united the country after the civil war period at the beginning of the 17th century, frequently stayed in this inn when he visited Seikenji Temple nearby. In the  Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, this inn served as a place for Waki-Honjin, the second best accommodation in the area, where the retainers of feudal lords stayed. Honjin, the best accommodation in the area, was where the feudal lords themselves stayed. 

Minaguchi-Ya had a good business during the Edo period as many feudal lords from the western part of Japan unceasingly traveled along the Tokaido Road. The Tokugawa Shoguns who ruled the country required all of the feudal lords to build their second homes in Edo, the capital, where their wives and children resided. The feudal lords themselves had to travel between their homes and Edo once every two years. 

After the Meiji Restoration, when the last Tokugawa Shogun returned the ruling power to the Emperor, Minaguchi-Ya lost their samurai customers who no longer needed to travel. The inn then reinvented itself as something like a high-end beach hotel. Many famous politicians, writers, poets, artists, and Imperial Family members stayed in this inn. The Meiji Emperor took a rest in this place when he traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto and the Showa Emperor and Empress also stayed overnight. Accordingly, Mizuguchi-Ya has good exhibit of calligraphy, crafts, and some tableware used by the Emperor and members of Imperial Family.  It is definitely worth a visit!