The name Sanso-an was given to the house by its original owner when it was first built.

Above the entrance, a wooden sign bearing the name Sanso-an still remains. Remarkably, the sign itself was made from a board once used in a waterwheel.

Sanso-an stands in Shinano, Nagano Prefecture, just a short distance from Lake Nojiri.

The property extends over approximately 240 tsubo (794 m²) and includes the main house and a traditional storehouse. Within the house remain many elements of a traditional Japanese home: a large doma earthen-floor space, a 15-tatami living hall with an irori hearth, formal and inner tatami rooms, and a long engawa veranda.

A major renovation was carried out approximately twenty years ago, including the kitchen, bathroom and other essential facilities.

It is a house in which the character of the past has been retained while continuing to serve as a place to live today.

Closest to the doma is the 15-tatami hiroma, the main living hall of Sanso-an.

With a built-in irori hearth and hibachi, it has long served as a centre of everyday life — a place to gather, relax and welcome guests without formality.

The ceiling rises to approximately 3.5 metres, giving the room an unusual sense of openness. Along the south side runs the engawa, while opening the rooms to the north allows air to flow naturally through the house.

Between the hiroma and the formal tatami room are carved ranma transoms featuring plum, lotus and bird motifs. Along the engawa are traditional shoji screens incorporating textured glass and solid lower panels.

These details do more than decorate the room. They allow light, air and even the subtle presence of the next room to pass through — a quality characteristic of traditional Japanese residential architecture.

The 12.5-tatami kami-zashiki is the most formal reception room in Sanso-an. It contains both a tokonoma — the traditional alcove used to display calligraphy, flowers or art — and a Buddhist altar space.

Above the fittings facing the engawa are openwork designs depicting pine, bamboo and plum, three auspicious motifs traditionally associated with resilience, vitality and renewal.

Together with the shoji screens, transoms and tokonoma, these details give the room a quiet sense of order and dignity.

There is nothing ostentatious here.

Rather, it preserves the restrained formality that once defined the finest rooms of a traditional Japanese home.

Beyond the formal room lies the 8-tatami oku-zashiki, the innermost tatami room of Sanso-an. Its lower ceiling gives the space a particularly calm, intimate atmosphere.

The room includes a tokonoma, a stepped side alcove with storage above, and a traditional shoin architectural feature.

Sliding fusuma connect it directly to the kami-zashiki; opened fully, the two rooms become one continuous tatami space.

A small engawa and doorway on the eastern side bring in the earliest morning light.

It is also said that the haiga artist Izan Shimomura lived in this room when he evacuated from Tokyo to Sanso-an in 1945.

Along the south side of the hiroma and kami-zashiki runs the engawa — a long wooden space between the rooms and the garden.

It also connects directly with the raised wooden edge of the doma. Open the shoji and glass doors, and the distinction between room, veranda and garden begins to soften.

Deep eaves temper the summer sun. Sit here and you can feel the breeze moving through the garden and hear the sound of two wind chimes.

It is a place for a book, an evening breeze, or simply sitting quietly. Slip on a pair of sandals and the garden is immediately outside.

At night, old pendant lights glow along the engawa, with a round window appearing at the far end of the passage.

Neither quite indoors nor outdoors.

The engawa is one of the places where traditional Japanese architecture turns the boundary between house and nature into a place of its own.

The doma was once one of the hardest-working parts of a Japanese home.

With its hard earthen floor, it was a place for handling soil, water, firewood, tools, food and the many activities that moved constantly between outdoors and indoors.

Sanso-an still retains its expansive doma and the deeply aged tataki floor beneath it.

More than an entrance, it is a space where the life of the house meets the ground itself.

Within the grounds stands a two-storey kura, built in 1913.

The families who once owned Sanso-an were prosperous farmers, and the building was originally used to store rice.

More than a century later, its substantial beams, roof structure, plank walls and original fittings remain strikingly present.

Upstairs, the exposed timber structure creates an especially impressive open space beneath the roof.

The kura will be transferred in its present condition and may require work depending on its future use.

But beyond its original purpose, it invites new possibilities — perhaps a workshop, studio, gallery or creative space.

A 113-year-old building, ready to be imagined again.

Izan Shimomura was a haiga artist closely associated with the haiku world of Masaoka Shiki. He worked on the early literary magazine Hototogisu, including the calligraphy for the cover of its first issue, and later contributed covers, illustrations and decorative artwork alongside artists such as Fusetsu Nakamura.

In 1945, at the age of 80, Shimomura left Tokyo to escape the wartime air raids and moved to Nagano.

The person who encouraged him to come here was Ichiro Tanahashi, the second owner of Sanso-an.

Shimomura is said to have lived in what is now the oku-zashiki.

A stone monument bearing one of his verses still stands in the garden, a reminder of that connection.

Inscribed upon it are the words:

月兮華兮筆乃命毫止古之反爾
Tsuki ya hana ya, fude no inochige, tokoshie ni.

A loose rendering might be:

“O moon, O flowers — may the life of my brush endure forever.”

The shore of Lake Nojiri is approximately five minutes away by car.

Surrounded by forest and mountains, the lake changes character with every season.

Travel a little farther and lakeside walking trails lead into quieter parts of the surrounding landscape.

For Sanso-an, the lake is not a destination for a special trip.

It is simply nearby.

Winter in Shinano brings deep snow.

Under a clear blue sky, the great roof of Sanso-an takes on an entirely different character beneath its white covering.

And here, snow is not something you only look at.

Kurohime Kogen is approximately 14 minutes away by car, and Tangram approximately 18 minutes.

Spend the day skiing or snowboarding, then return to a 160-year-old Japanese house.

Here, that kind of winter day is simply part of life.