When generations have lived in a home, it is woven into the weft of the neighborhood through threads of human connection. Pieces of local history gather under its roof like slow growing moss, lush with the beauty of perseverance. It becomes a landmark, an axis around which locals can orient stories from their daily lives.
ANABUKI TEI is just such a home and a stay there is a privileged experience of residential life in the historic town of Takamatsu, Kagawa. Eitaro Anabuki, the third-generation owner, invites just one group a day to stay in the home where he grew up, lovingly renovated but still rich in history.
The story of ANABUKI TEI begins with Eitaro’s great-grandfather Kisaku, a carpenter who taught his son Natsuji the craft. Natsuji went on to found Anabuki Construction, a company that helped rebuild Takamatsu after the destruction of World War II, becoming one of Japan’s leading firms in the process.
Natsuji built a family home in 1970 on a large plot of land that is now part of central Takamatsu. There, he raised his children and eventually his grandchildren, Eitaro and his older brothers. After that youngest generation left the nest, the property, once full of life, sat empty. Following 2009’s global financial crisis, the family business went bankrupt and there was huge pressure to sell the home, which sat on valuable land and had become costly to maintain.
Eitaro, however, just returned from studying hospitality abroad, couldn’t bear to see the family home disappear. He convinced the family to renovate the building and turn it into a unique inn: not quite a ryokan or hotel, more like a stay with a cosmopolitan family friend. Now Anabuki-san welcomes guests to his former home, as part butler, part guide, helping to foster another generation of happy memories within its walls.
Rooms
ROOMPrivate Villa Suite
ANABUKI TEI has five bedrooms in total, a master king, three twin rooms, and a single. Each is …
ROOMPrivate Villa Suite
ANABUKI TEI has five bedrooms in total, a master king, three twin rooms, and a single. Each is comfortably but minimally appointed in soothing neutral colors and the diffuse light of Isamu Noguchi lamps. The minimalist approach allows Anabuki-san’s carefully selected artworks to take pride of place, subtly immersing guests in the cultural world of Kagawa. In the master bedroom, for example, a vibrant watercolor by local artist Hiroko Hashimoto evokes a seaside view of Mt. Yashima, Takamatsu’s guardian volcano and site of a legendary twelfth-century battle. In another, abstract works of Kagawa lacquerware hang on the wall, created by local artisan Kota Matsumoto, winner of the prefecture’s Best Young Artist Award. Anabuki-san connects these pieces to family stories and weaves in explanations of centuries of local history, making the small design details feel full of significance and depth. REQUEST THIS ROOM
FACILITIES & SERVICES
Baths
There are two main baths at ANABUKI TEI. The indoor bath, found on the first floor, features an…
Sauna
Next to the spacious outdoor bath is a custom-designed, Finnish-style sauna, housed in a renova…
Living and Dining
The heart of ANABUKI TEI is the sprawling open-plan living, dining, and kitchen space, centered…
Tatami Room
The first floor also has a spacious tatami-floored room facing the garden, left largely empty i…
Library
Amid the bedrooms of the second floor is a common area designated the library. As the name sugg…
Japanese Garden
ANABUKI TEI has the footprint of a traditional Japanese home: a house and garden encircled by a…
Art
Although the nearby island of Naoshima is perhaps more famous in the art world, Takamatsu has a…
Baths
There are two main baths at ANABUKI TEI. The indoor bath, found on the first floor, features an elegant ceramic soaking tub in the Goemonburo style. It is surrounded by a field of rough Aji stone, also called granite diamond, which sparkles attractively in the soft light, evoking a moonlit mountaintop escape. The outdoor bath, clad in weathered Japanese cedar and stone, is concealed from the neighborhood through the use of a chic canopy while allowing bathers to relax in the open air. The bath is large enough for a full house and ANABUKI TEI allows the use of swimsuits if preferred. A small minibar and lounge area adjoin, as does a wood-fire sauna. There is also an additional full shower on the second floor of the residence.
Sauna
Next to the spacious outdoor bath is a custom-designed, Finnish-style sauna, housed in a renovated storehouse once used for Natsuji’s hobby of koi breeding. The wood-fired stove is crowned with a jumble of Kagawa’s famous Aji stone, which radiate a comfortable heat and therapeutic steam when ladled with water. Interior benches provide plenty of room to stretch out while muscles unknot and breathing slows. Emerging into the invigorating fresh air, guests can cool down at a pillow-strewn lounge area, shielded from surrounding eyes by a chic canopy, until ready to dive back into the soporific steam.
Living and Dining
The heart of ANABUKI TEI is the sprawling open-plan living, dining, and kitchen space, centered around a classic wood-burning stove. It is filled with curved warm-wood Scandinavian furniture and fresh-cut flowers arranged by Anabuki-san’s wife, the natural materials mirroring the Japanese garden visible from floor-to-ceiling windows on the south wall. The kitchen, raised a step from the dining area, provides a stage for the private chefs to present their skills and serve course after course showcasing Shikoku’s rich culinary tradition. In between meals, the kitchen is stocked with complimentary drinks, fruit, and snacks from local makers, as well as a selection of international wines.
Tatami Room
The first floor also has a spacious tatami-floored room facing the garden, left largely empty in the classic Japanese style. Without cumbersome furniture to move around, the space is perfect for yoga practice, meditation, or just boneless sprawling on the cool woven-rush flooring, a quintessential summertime pleasure in Japan. A single pendant lamp crafted from washi paper and delicate bamboo levitates like a gentle sun over the room. It is an original piece by Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, one of his ever-popular series of Akari lamps.
Library
Amid the bedrooms of the second floor is a common area designated the library. As the name suggests, it is stocked with a collection of books focused on local art and culture, as well as low-slung chairs for casual perusing. The books share the shelves with artistic objets drawn from the same world: Kagawa’s traditional uchiwa fans, antique molds used to shape wagashi sweets, bookends carved from Aji granite. Beautiful as they are to look at, the real pleasure is hearing Anabuki-san share the stories behind each and how they connect to his family. Even the humble zaru, the woven bamboo strainer used at Japanese noodle shops, is elevated to art in this space, comprising an instillation on the ceiling that references Natsuji Anabuki’s passion for cold soba.
Japanese Garden
ANABUKI TEI has the footprint of a traditional Japanese home: a house and garden encircled by a high wall for privacy. The garden, a tidy space of carved stone and sculpted plants, provides a verdant locus for daily life, visible from nearly all the rooms, dotted with loungers and hammocks, and dramatically illuminated at night. Just inside the gate, a stout black pine stretches a single arm, not up towards the sky but across, to shelter the path and welcome each guest. This centenarian is a relative of nearby Ritsurin Garden’s famous Tsurukame-Matsu and, indeed, has to be tended by one of the garden’s pine specialists. Unlike bonsai, which uses wires to force trees to grow in a particular direction, the master gardeners of Ritsurin carefully harness their charges’ natural inclinations to achieve fanciful shapes or impressive horizontal reach, crafting living artworks in collaboration with each other and with nature over successive centuries.
Art
Although the nearby island of Naoshima is perhaps more famous in the art world, Takamatsu has a long art history. As a former castle town with a prosperous port, the city developed many unique craft traditions including Kagawa lacquerware, wagasa umbrellas, Aji granite stonework, wooden molds for wagashi and wasanbon sugar, and bonsai. Quite a few craftspeople recognized as Living National Treasures have called Takamatsu home. During the 1950s and 60s, the city became a hub for contemporary artists while then governor Masanori Kaneko commissioned a slew of public works by leading architects like Kenzo Tange and artists like Masayuki Nagare. Others, like Isamu Noguchi, came on their own , to collaborate with their peers and learn to work with Japanese materials. The things they created are still very much a part of Takamatsu’s urban life today.
Kagawa Prefecture, located in the northern part of Japan’s Shikoku region and also known as the smallest prefecture in Japan, has a rich cultural heritage and traditional arts and crafts. In addition to its significant ancient spiritual pilgrimage route, food, and traditions, Shikoku’s largest city, Takamatsu, and many small islands on the Seto Inland Sea offer immensely enriched cultures.
VISIT THE ANABUKI TEI OWNER’S RECOMMENDED PLACES
As an aspect of traditional arts and crafts, Shikokumura Museum, The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, the Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building, and Ritsurin Garden are the must-visit spots as a first step to dig deep into the history and culture of Kagawa Prefecture. All these spots are located within about a 10 to 30-minute drive from ANABUKI TEI. Aji stones, pine trees, lacquerware, and wasanbon (fine-grained Japanese sugar confections) are also essential cultures that represent Takamatsu and Kagawa Prefecture.
Shikokumura Museum is about a 15-minute drive from ANABUKI TEI. This outdoor museum, which covers 50,000 square meters, features 33 old folk houses and examples of historical architecture relocated from all the regions of Shikoku. The houses and buildings display sugar cane processing facilities, farming tools, and other tools and items used by the people who lived during the Edo (1603 to 1868) and Taisho (1912 to 1926) periods. The museum includes the Shikoku Mura Gallery, designed by architect Tadao Ando, which displays paintings, sculptures, and oriental works of art. On the property, one of the famous Sanuki udon noodle restaurants in Kagawa Prefecture, Waraya, delights visitors’ taste buds.
The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum is located within about a 20-minute drive from ANABUKI TEI. Isamu Noguchi is a half-Japanese, half-American artist, furniture designer, and landscape artist whose works have spanned six decades from the 1920s. Noguchi first visited Shikoku in 1956 to search for stones for his garden at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Later, he returned looking for a craftsman to work with him on the monumental granite sculpture, ‘Black Sun’ for the Seattle Art Museum. At that time, he was referred to a young stonecutter from the village of Mure, Masatoshi Izumi, and developed a firm working relationship. Noguchi built a studio in the village of Mure on the Japanese island of Shikoku and started a life travel back and forth between New York City and Japan, as well as a twenty-year collaboration with Izumi. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum fulfills Noguchi’s wish that his former studio in Mure will be an extension to inspire artists and scholars. The stone garden brilliantly manifests installation art, which creates a space to perceive being between different dimensions. The museum contains about 150 sculptures, many of which are still unfinished, preserving the working atmosphere of his studio.
Situated within a 10-minute drive from ANABUKI TEI, Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building (formerly the main building) is known as the representative work of Kenzo Tange’s early career. Kenzo Tange is the first Japanese architect to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize. His work is compound for modern architecture and traditional Japanese elements, and this East Building is praised as one of the most essential works in the history of architecture. The building is an important cultural property, representing democracy with a welcoming atmosphere that overturns the authoritative feel of public office buildings since the governor requested to design the new building to be the government office of the age of democracy after World War II. The open design of the lobby, which used columns and glass to create a welcoming atmosphere for visitors, became the model for post-war government buildings.
In the center of Takamatsu, Ritsurin Garden is nestled with over 1,400 pine trees. Ritsurin Garden was originally the property of the Matsudaira family, the lords of the Takamatsu domain who inherited its property from the Ikoma family, rulers of Sanuki province, which is today’s Kagawa Prefecture. After 1875, when the Matsudaira family lost their status as lords, Ritsurin Garden was reborn as a park and opened to the public. The garden has been awarded the 3 Michelin Stars in Green Guide Japan, and it attracts visitors from all over the world with the change of the beautiful four seasons in Japan. When you visit Ritsurin Garden, taking a boat ride and having tea and sweets at Kikugetsu-tei Teahouse in the garden are strongly recommended. If you have spare time, taking a tourism volunteer guide at the entrance is also recommended as they are full of knowledge and trivia about the garden, which allows visitors to see the garden from many different angles. English-speaking volunteer guides are available at Ritsurin Garden.
VISIT REMARKABLE ARTISANS OF KAGAWA
Photography: Kenji Kagawa
Photography: Kenji Kagawa
Photography: Kenji Kagawa
Kagawa is full of cultures, and Aji stone, pine trees, lacquerware, pottery, kintsugi, Marugame Uchiwa, and wasanbon are major charms. Aji stone, a type of granite, is quarried from the rock cliffs of the mountains connected to Mt. Gokenzan (375 meters high), which straddles the towns of Mure and Aji in Takamatsu City. Aji stone is known for its fine grain, low water absorption rate, and toughness, so it’s called a diamond of stone. Just like diamonds, there are a variety of styles of Aji Stone, each with its unique feel and beauty. A local stone product company in Takamatsu called AJI PROJECT makes products from stone. With their techniques and passion, they make the Aji stone alive by giving them new roles and meanings. The guests at ANABUKI TEI can also refer to the works of AJI PROJECT displayed at ANABUKI TEI.
Kagawa lacquerware, called Kagawa shikki in Japanese, is rooted in Kagawa Prefecture. Kagawa lacquerware has been produced around Takamatsu, and a wide range of products, including cake boxes, trays, low tables, and display cases, have been produced. This plentiful variety of product types features exquisitely elegant multi-colored lacquers. The lacquerware, resistant to breakages, has a warm feel and a beautiful glaze that stays the same over a long period of time, even after use. Takamatsu is also the leading producer of bonsai in Japan, growing about 80% of Japan’s miniature pine trees. The artisans of Takamatsu used botanical knowledge and pruning skills acquired in fruit farming, and bonsai was a hobby practiced mainly by the nobility and high-ranking samurai until the end of the Edo period in 1867. At TAKUMIKUMO VILLAGE, ‘Bonsai no Sato,’ the guests can walk and feel the landscape and learn the history and seedbeds of bonsai. The guests can also experience various workshops, including Kagawa lacquerware, traditional Japanese sweets making, bonsai, pottery, kintsugi, and Marugame Uchiwa at TAKUMIKUMO VILLAGE. The workshop arrangements can be made through the owner of ANABUKI TEI.
Wasanbon (fine-grained Japanese sugar confections) has also been produced primarily in the eastern part of Shikoku, in Kagawa and Tokushima Prefectures, for over two hundred years. The sugar is made of the finest quality and crystallized sugar cane mixed with just the right amount of water to create these finely textured, high-quality sweets. The wooden molds for the candy-making process are essential and are all made by one man, Yoshihiro Ichihara, the only practitioner of this traditional woodworking art in Shikoku. Today, his daughter, Ayumi Uehara, inherits his works and spirit at her studio a few houses down the street from his studio, called “Mamehana.” Ms. Uehara provides workshops in English, and workshop arrangements can be made upon request in advance via the owner of ANABUKI TEI. Because of its refined wasanbon culture in Kagawa, the tea ceremony culture is quite penetrated all over Kagawa.
For a day trip during your stay at ANABUKI TEI, Naoshima is a colorful artistic gateway for contemporary art and architecture. It is Naoshima is renowned as a world’s famous art island, located about 13 kilometers (approx. 8 miles) north of Takamatsu City. Cultivated and operated by Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Naoshima has plenty of contemporary art facilities and sites to explore for a day trip, and most artworks are exhibited in the open air or facilities designed with the Seto Inland Sea in mind. From ANABUKI TEI, it is about a 5-minute drive by car to Takamatsu Port and a 25-minute charted boat ride or a 50-minute ferry ride to Naoshima. ANABUKI TEI can arrange a charted boat between Takamatsu and Naoshima and a hired transfer for the guests in Naoshima.
VISIT A COZY LOCAL RESTAURANT WITH THE OWNER OF ANABUKI TEI
As much as the guests can enjoy the private chef’s dinner and breakfast during their stay at ANABUKI TEI, they can also enjoy going out in the City of Takamatsu with the owner and having local dinner at an owner’s selected restaurant, Miyamoto Sozaiten. This owner’s selected restaurant is a cozy counter restaurant with a charming vibe and friendly staff who are well knowledgeable about Japanese sake. The restaurant cooks all homemade dishes with ingredients from local farmers, which go well with alcohol. They also have a great selection of Japanese sake that goes well with food. Enjoy exploring the memorable interactions of the local people of Kagawa at Miyamoto Sozaiten with ANABUKI TEI’s owner himself.
The ryokan rate above is for renting out the ryokan, including one night accommodation, dinner (and breakfast), service charge, and tax.
Please note that the rate will change depending on the number of guests and seasonality. Please contact us for the further details.
Please contact us for more information about the rates.
- The mentioned rates and service are available only for LRC Members who book through LRC's website.
- The rates are subject to change without any prior notice.
