Welcome
to the Old Aoyama Villa
The Old Aoyama Villa is a symbol of herring fishing,
born out of the dream of a 17 year-old young woman, Masae Aoyama. Imagine
how many people enjoyed grand parties nightly in this villa during its prosperous
days!
Otaru's
Prosperous Herring Fisheries
The Taisho era record for herring fishing near Otaru was made in
1913 (Taisho 8) when the season's first haul brought in about 560 thousand
tons, (worth over 168 billion yen at today's values). Because of its superb
hauls, nearby Shukutsu was the most active herring-fishing harbor in the vicinity.
The Aoyama family was one of three leading herring fishing tycoons, along
with the Ibaraki and Shiratori family enterprises. During the Taisho era,
the Aoyama family controlled a total of 10.5"ton " of fishing operations --1.5
ton in Shukutsu, 1.5 ton nearby, 2.5 ton in the next town, Toyoi, and 5 ton
in Ofuyu village.
(A "ton" represents a working unit of 25-100 fishermen. In a signal night,
one "ton" might catch several hundred "koku" of herring, (one "koku" equaling
approximately 750kg) bringing in from their nets 500,000 to 600,000 fish.)
In 1913 (Taisho 3), over 10,000 koku, worth 2.5 billion yen at today's values,
of herring were caught in the Aoyama's fishing grounds. The Aoyama fishermen's
house, which was itself palatial, was presented to the Historical Village
of Hokkaido by fourth generation, Kaoru Aoyama, and can also be seen today.
(Why not visit there too sometime?) But this fishermen's house was not the
end of the story.
The
Old Aoyama Villa The Construction Process
The Aoyama family fortune was built up over two generations by
Tomekichi and Masakichi Aoyama. Masakichi's daughter, Masae, provided the
impetus for the villa. When she was 17 years old, she had visited the mansion
of the Honma family in Sakata (Yamagata Prefecture, Northern Honshu). The
splendid Honma mansion reflected that family's vast landholdings in Japan,
but Masae returned home with a wish for the Aoyama family to have an even
finer villa. And thus when Masakichi Aoyama had become a herring millionaire,
he began construction of the villa in 1917(Taisho 7), guided by his daughter
Masae and her husband Tamiji.
Masakichi was known as a herring millionaire, but he had sophisticated taste
for beauty and the arts. He and Masae both enjoyed making Japanese paintings
(nihonga) and calligraphy (sho), and so he aimed at building
an artistically superb house, different from fisherman's home.
Masakichi hired Nenosukue Saito, the chief Imperial carpenters, who directed
40 carpenters, plasterers and joiners in the work. The villa took 6 years
to be completed. It cost almost 310,000 yen, which was not too much less than
the 500,000 yen that Isetan department store building in Shinjuku, Tokyo cost
around the same time. So you can imagine how lavish the construction was for
the time.
The
materials and workmanship of the villa
The primary material is keyaki
(zelkova wood) from Sakata. The tiled roof (kawara) is rare in snowy
Hokkaido. At the corner of the eaves, there is hiyodori line, linking
kumiki and taruki, all hand-crafted. The floors and pillars
are exquisitely lacquered (shunkei-nuri) and the walls are hand-plastered
(shikkui). The wide ceiling is built using jindai sugi (Japanese
cedar). The one-piece corridor is made of uguisu bari, built without
joints from one end to the other.
In the various rooms, the traditional alcoves (tokonoma) are built
in rosewood (shitan), blackwood (kokutan), Bombay blackwood
(tagayasan), or Japanese cedar. The hardware fittings on many sliding
Japanese doors (fusuma) are also extremely fine, made of shippo-style
ware, valued equivalent to jewelry at the time. The gorgeously sculptured
fanlights are made of rosewood, blackwood, and bamboo. Of course, the paintings
and calligraphy on the fusuma Japanese sliding doors are genuine treasures.
They were created by Gyokudo Kawai, a great master of Japanese painting working
with approximately 10 of his disciples, who came on Masakichi's invitation
and stayed for about a month to complete their work. Outside, there are gardens
on three sides of the building, and the karesan-sui style courtyard,
composed of pine tree and rocks, has a particularly sophisticated air.
A
Designated Historical Residence
As you can see, this mansion was built
regardless of expense and was furnished with every luxury during the golden
age of herring fishing in Shukutsu. Otaru city has recognized the importance
of this building by designating it as one of the city's special historical
properties (shitei rekishiteki kenzou butsu). We hope that it will
make you too feel nostalgic for the spirit of earlier days and the fine arts
of those times.
Thank you for your visit. If you can, please visit again sometime.
This page is taken from http://toms.med.hokudai.ac.jp/society/usjapan/aoyama.html and is information for a past urology conference from 2001. It may not last much longer and was copied for this page to maintain this information.