The quietude at Numazu Club is its biggest selling point. Even when the sliding doors of a guest room at the villa are wide open, there’s only the faint rustle of pine trees in the breeze and the odd splash of a few birds enjoying the spring water of a shallow garden pool.
There is indeed very little to do at the resort, which sits nestled between private vacation homes in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, a 10-minute drive from the city center. The only nearby points of interest are a beach promenade and Senbonhama Park, a swathe of land filled with pine trees. The villa rooms, designed by architect Akira Watanabe (1938-2010), are elegantly minimalist in decor with views of a simple, pebble-lined pool of still water, and there is not one TV in sight.
If meditation were to manifest itself as architecture, then Numazu Club would be it.
There is, however, another alluring attraction, one in tune with the resort’s serene environment and the inspiration behind Watanabe’s tranquil design. Commissioned in 2006, the Numazu Club villa was built as an annex to the restoration of a vast 1913 chatei (traditional Japanese teahouse) originally owned by Zembei Miwa, an accomplished tea master and the second-generation president of the manufacturer of then-popular Mitsuwa Soap. To Miwa, Numazu Club’s 10,000-square-meter grounds, hidden away within a pine grove, was the perfect spot to host refined tea ceremonies for friends, family and important guests.
“We envisioned a historic salon space where the history of Japan’s tea culture, which can be considered a prototype of the classical style, is interwoven with the modernity of the villa, and the two blend together in a lively manner,” Watanabe said in a 2008 interview for Shinkenchiku magazine. “I wanted to respond to the ‘classic’ with the most natural elements of wood and earth against the sky and sea glimpsed beyond the pine forest.”
The windows of the Kasuga room of Numazu Club’s chatei teahouse offer a panoramic view of the ground’s gardens.
| BEN RICHARDS, COURTESY OF NUMAZU CLUB
Today, the chatei is a designated Tangible Cultural Property and open to Numazu Club villa guests like a luxuriously extensive parlor. With the few distractions on Numazu Club’s grounds, guests can’t help but pore over the details of its immaculately restored architecture.
The chatei, which was constructed by Yuzaburo Kashiwagi, a master carpenter and descendent of a family who served the Tokugawa government, features all the elements of nature that sukiya-zukuri (refined Japanese residential architecture) is renowned for: earthen walls, wooden battens, log beams, intricate bamboo wicker ceilings, rustic bark ornamentation and more. Kashiwagi’s early 20th-century additions, including rare, hand-blown glass windows and an unusual Western-style conservatory, add to its charm.
A wander through the teahouse is like a trip back in time. Original furniture remains in many of the rooms that each bear their own subtle but exquisite architectural details. In the north wing’s main hall, where villa guests dine, delicate air bubbles within windows show the inevitable and beautiful imperfection of handmade glass. Two adjoined rooms feature doorways of descending height that enhance the perspective of the building and draw the eye to paneled glass sliding doors that look out on Numazu Club’s Japanese garden. Another room has its own tiny veranda made with small logs textured by the small indents of naguri hand-carved patterns.
Zembei’s large parties of visitors would have been hosted in the main tea ceremony room in the south wing, where the polished burls and knots of tree-trunk beams embellish a dignified tokonoma (display alcove). Perhaps the visitors then retired in the lounge next door, a spacious, Western-style conservatory featuring bay windows beneath two unusual styles of ajiro wickerwork that stretch across its vaulted ceiling. Here, guests of the Numazu Club are welcome to relax on contemporary mid-century-inspired furniture before the view of the resort’s verdant garden.
In the far corner of the south wing, just beyond what was once Zembei’s mother’s room, lies an intimate, three-tatami-mat tearoom believed to have been relocated from Kyoto. Even this tiny space has its own unique characteristics of Japanese artisanship: Shoji screens filter light through windows of different sizes, the ceiling showcases three types of bamboo and barked log craftsmanship, and, in the corners of the room’s entryway ceiling, circular air vents are hand-carved in the shape of chrysanthemums.
The Nigatsudo main tearoom of Numazu Club’s “chatei” features an alcove embellished with polished tree trunks.
| BEN RICHARDS, COURTESY OF NUMAZU CLUB
To take in such details of Japanese architecture enhances the appreciation of Watanabe’s modern interpretation of sukiya-zukuri for the villa annex. In the reception lobby, the cool gray striations of its walls are in fact layers of compacted sand and soil collected from the Fuji River some 25 kilometers to the east. Above, the planked Yoshino cedar ceiling appears untreated, showcasing the timber’s natural color, grain and texture.
The materials of the villa’s eight guest rooms, in both tatami-matted Japanese and Western style, also echo that of the chatei. Some rooms have earthen-esque entryway floors similar to traditional Japanese houses. All of them feature furniture and latticed shutters that highlight the natural patterns of wood or wicker, and most include bathtubs made from fragrant hinoki (Japanese cypress).
Only the Numazu Suite seems to veer slightly from the overall aesthetic. Here, the recent addition of sumptuous textiles in deep, earthy colors — as sofa and chair covers — and abstract fabric artworks elevates a sense of luxury. Designed by Hosoo, a manufacturer of traditional nishijin (brocade) fabrics, even these embellishments allude to traditional Japanese craftsmanship.
When the surroundings offer so much contemplative and visual interest, who needs the distractions of local entertainment, nightlife or even a TV? Whether you choose to meditate by the crystal-clear pool, enjoy a dip in a hinoki bath, relax in the facility’s shared sauna and spa, or lounge in the chatei, you are bound to appreciate Zembei’s original vision: a sanctuary from modern life.
Numazu Club’s “chatei” teahouse Showa room is an unusual blend of Western style aesthetics and Japanese craftsmanship.
| BEN RICHARDS, COURTESY OF NUMAZU CLUB
1913: It is believed that a personal love of tempura led Zembei Miwa, the Tokyo-born president of Mitsuwa Soap, to choose Numazu for his teahouse. He hoped to serve his guests tempura made with fresh catches from Suruga Bay.
1943: Though the chatei (traditional Japanese teahouse) was requisitioned by the War Ministry to become a rest house for officers during World War II, it miraculously survived air raids of Numazu unscathed.
1946: As one of few functioning traditional buildings left in the city, the estate was acquired by the mayor of Numazu and other locals who formed the Numazu Club association. Since it was also the only establishment left with a traditional restaurant large enough to entertain guests, Numazu Club flourished as a meeting place for politicians discussing Numazu’s postwar reconstruction. Rumor has it that Japan’s then-incipient Constitution may even have been discussed within the chatei.
1980s: By the mid-Showa Era (1926-1989), Numazu Club’s buildings had begun to decline. In need of extensive repair, the establishment was finally forced to shutter its doors and leave the structure abandoned.
2006-2008: The teahouse was restored as faithfully as possible and Akira Watanabe was commissioned to design a private villa for visiting guests.
2015: Numazu Club’s teahouse was registered as Tangible Cultural Property of Japan.
2023: Now operated by Greening Co. Ltd., Numazu Club opened its doors to the general public.
Numazu Club villa guest rooms feature slatted shutters inspired by “sukiya-zukuri” teahouse architecture.
| BEN RICHARDS, COURTESY OF NUMAZU CLUB
Accommodation for this story was provided by Numazu Club. No portion of this story was provided to any third party prior to publication.