The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ashiya

With the Fuji trip cancelled, my friend Ben and I decided that Saturday would be an ideal day to visit the Yodoko Guest House, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Ashiya. The house - originally commissioned as a "national import cultural property" by a powerful sake brewing family (old money), turned into a Guest House, and now used as a museum - is only open on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, which previously posed a problem in our schedules. The free time, however, offered a good opportunity to take advantage of the afternoon and give Ben and I one last chance to hang out before he leaves for America, next week. It was not the best day for a field trip; strong terrential rains (a prelude to typhoon warnings in our area) pelted our legs under the brim of our umbrellas as we wandered around the wealthy surburban area of Ashiya, one stop east of Kobe on the JR Special Rapid. We pushed on with determination, admiring the fine and often unique or artistic architecture of this upper-class area along the way. It was much different from the small, industrial (and more country?) area we reside in.
We passed a large river, while the thick, green mountains in the background beckoned us to go on and signs warned us to be on the watch for wild boar. After about then minutes of walking, as we were going uphill on a twisted stretch of road, the beige-colored house suddenly appeared on a ledge of trees in front of us. As I mentioned in my previous post, Wright was probably most famous for his efforts to harmonize nature and buildings*. This house was no exception. The house is built on a large hill, and peeked over the side as if it were part of the lanscape itself. Ironically, the house IS actually built into the hill, in a way. Although the house has a total of four floors, no part of the house is more than two floors high, so that it stays spacious while comfortably hugging the area it occupies. It doesn't look or seem like a split-level, but more of a sprawled out residence.
When we arrived at the house, we passed two old entrances with rusted mailboxes, presumably an old formal entrance (for guests on foot) and one possibly used for some kind of servents quarters (as remnants of a once-existing house foundation suggested). We took the third entrance, leading us up an old driveway and into the garage-area (reminiscent of a carriage-reception area like on the old houses in the Lake Calhoun-area in Minneapolis) where the front door to the museum is. When we walked into the house, we were greeted by a host who took money for the entrance fee (500 yen) and showed us to the slipper area where we could remove our shoes. The first thing that struck me was that this house definately looked typical of FLW. I can't remember how I was first aquainted with Wright's designs, but I have at least seen several other Wright-designed buildings (from the outside) in the Rock Glen and Rock Crest districts of Mason City, Iowa. This gave me the same feel.
Before I go on about the details, however, I should note that while Wright designed the house, it was actually built by two of his apprecentices in 1924, after Wright had finished the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and returned to the US. Possibly after Wright's departure, several disagreements about the orignal designs took place between Wright and the Yamamura Family (the wealthy sake brewers that commissioned the house), and design changes were made. The family wanted tatami (bamboo floors) and sliding doors on the 4th floor to display their HINA dolls, for example, while Wright did not think that this was appropriate for the flow of the house. The family won, probably due to the fact that they were funding the project, but then the measuring systems Wright and his 'proteges' (the builders) used were also different for these Japanese rooms. They had to compensate for it by altering the wall-thickness**. So, while these Japanese rooms - and several small details - might alter the authenticity of this being an original Wright design, it does make this house unique... and it still had the aura of FLW design. There were many details in the house characteristic of Wright's design style, especially including the mahogany framework and docorative copper fittings, found in an identical leaf-motif all over the house. The details were quite honestly magnificent. Two of the main rooms, a sitting room and another meeting room (which led to a rooftop balcony, offering striking views of the Rokko mountain chain, the river below and Osaka Bay in the distance - now somewhat covered by the mature trees and more recent bridges and construction), included tiny windows all along the top of the wall, with small shudders, that would allow the room to ventilate. They also offered extra sunlight during the day and a view of the starry sky at night (back when you could still see the stars in Ashiya). Wright used Japanese building materials, but those that would be most congruent with what he would have used in America. The stone used to make the stairs, for example (now covered by carpet, but see my album for a sneak peek) was querried about two hours north of Tokyo and transported down for the project.
Ben and I spent almost a full two hours taking in the details of the house, made a quick stop at the gift shop (got a cool t-shirt for my brother) and returned to the umbrella racks to collect our belongings and face the storm. The house was definately a fun experience. It was interesting (and refreshing) to see all the detail that was included in the structure, something I think that would have possibly been overlooked or considered a waste when building many other homes (or if it had not been supported and funded by a wealthy family). If anything, it was a good reminder that the small things can make a big difference.

We made our way back down the hill and took the Hankyu train line back to Sannomiya, in the heart of Kobe. The plan was to catch dinner at ModernArk, an organic cafe in trendy Motomachi that Ben had told me about. The FLW house had closed at 4, however, so we had some time before dinner and just walked around and shopped for a while to kill some time and get out of the (increasingly heavy) rains. I discovered a (pretty expensive) foreign foods store in Santica (underground mall), and bought some dill pickles, but otherwise, nothing too exciting. After hitting up a few shops, we were both starting to feel "shopped out", so we walked to the cafe. Inside, the place reminded me a lot of home, actually; a cross between Gigi's Cafe and the French Meadow Bakery in Minneapolis. The walls were painted a soothing green color, high lighted by various forms of ethnic art, while the back wall was covered with bookshelves. Some might say it was hippy-friendly, but the atmosphere was dead-on what I was craving. Both Ben and I ordered set meals (I got quiche, he got a burrito), the organic tea they served was some of the best I've had in a while, and Ben let me try his dandelion coffee, which was pretty good. The place is not as cheap as it would be, say, in America, but it is typical for Japan and I want to go back sometime. They have a charming porch and I really like the ambiance; it might be a good place for a low-key birthday brunch someday. Anyways, after dinner, we weaved in and out of the neighboring re-used and antique shops before parting ways at the station. I contemplated going to a friend's house in Amagasaki for the evening, but the winds were getting stronger, it was still raining, and there was a threat of the trains shutting down if the typhoon did hit hard enough. So, I did the responsible thing and went home and worked on my Hyogo Times article (the first going out to the new people in our community!) before going to bed.


*Wright created the philosophy of "organic architecture" (exactly that, the belief that a building should develop out of its natural surroundings).
**The museum explained this conflict with the following statement: "Elements of Western and Japanese, which are seemingly out of harmony with each other, are completely harmonized through the close collaboration between master and protoges." Even so, the tatami rooms, traditional Japanese kitchen (gas outlets & no hot water) & bathroom (with traditional Japanese bath) remind the visitor they are in Japan, and that this western-designed house is very much a Japanse household.