Sleeping in a 120-Year-Old Farmhouse

Kominka

An old house in the forest

In the forest of Atsuma, in Hokkaido, there is a farmhouse that has stood for 120 years.
Mori no Auberge Mitsu is what that old house became when it was restored.
It is a quiet place, and it takes three groups a night.
The pillars, the beams and the carved ranma transom are all wood that has lived more than a century.
Surrounded by that wood, you spend an evening in the forest over a Japanese creative course.
New Chitose Airport is about 30 minutes away by car. Close, and yet the time here runs further from the city than anywhere.
If you are looking for a farmhouse to stay in somewhere in Hokkaido, this is ours, and the quiet comes with it.

Its Origin

A house moved from Toyama

The lounge of the 120-year-old farmhouse, held up by thick pillars and beams

This house was moved to Atsuma from the Tonami district of Toyama Prefecture in the early Meiji era, during the settlement of Hokkaido. It crossed the sea and was put up again on northern ground.

For about 120 years since, it has kept time with this piece of land. Rather than pull it down, we chose to restore it for the next hundred years.

So the pillars and beams you see are not newly cut. They are the real old timber that has carried this house since the settlement years.

Farmhouses in Toyama were built for life in the deep snow of the Hokuriku coast. That way of building took root here in Atsuma and spent 120 years in it. Two places are remembered in one house.

Craft & Timber

Traditional joinery, and old timber

Old timber in the lounge and a carved ranma transom

The house is built in a traditional method that does not rely on metal fittings. Heavy timbers are fitted into one another and joined without metal, so that the frame holds itself up.

Look up between the rooms and you will find a carved ranma transom. The handwork of the time is still there.

The surface of the wood carries the colour and the sheen that 120 years put into it. New timber cannot give you that; it belongs to old wood alone. Put a hand on it and you feel the depth.

What can be repaired, we repaired with modern work; what should be left alone, we left. Old and new sit quietly together in this house.

The rooms open straight out of the old house. Ki, Mi and Tsuki are described in full on the rooms page.

See the rooms

Three Rooms

All three rooms are part of the old house

There are three rooms: Ki, Mi and Tsuki.
Each of them keeps the space of the old farmhouse as it was.
Light from the forest comes through the shoji, and there is no television.
What you hear is the trees, and your own breathing.
That quiet is the finest thing this house serves.
The tatami room and the rooms with beds share the same roots in the old house.
Sit on the tatami, lean against a pillar, and stop watching the clock.
We have taken away everything that got in the way of a night like that.

Tsuki, a suite in the old farmhouse with tatami and beds — Tsuki

Ki, a room with a window onto the green of the forest — Ki

A tatami room with soft light coming through the shoji screens — Soft light through the shoji

One Night

One night in the old house

In the late afternoon, as the forest darkens, the water is heated. Every room has its own indoor bath: a goemon-style soaking tub in ceramic ware. You can sit in it quietly, with the smell of wood around you. There is more about it on the page for the goemon-style bath.

Afterwards comes dinner, a Japanese creative course that follows the season in Hokkaido. Ingredients arrive from the sea and the fields of Atsuma, and we serve them one dish at a time. At a table ringed by old pillars, the evening goes slowly.

The lounge and the rest of the house are described on the facilities page, if it helps you picture the hours you would spend inside.

In the morning, soft light comes through the shoji. The forest wakes, and the birds start. A Hokkaido morning inside an old house has a different feel from an ordinary one. We would like you to have that night, and that morning, here.

FAQ

Questions about the farmhouse

Q. Is there a farmhouse inn in Hokkaido?

Mori no Auberge Mitsu is a farmhouse inn in the forest of Atsuma, Yufutsu District, Hokkaido. The building is a 120-year-old farmhouse that was moved here and restored, and all three rooms sit inside it. It is about 30 minutes by car from New Chitose Airport and about 15 minutes from the Atsuma interchange. We take three groups a night.

Q. How old is the building?

About 120 years. In the early Meiji era, during the settlement of Hokkaido, the house was moved from the Tonami district of Toyama Prefecture to Atsuma, and we restored it for the next hundred years. The thick central pillars, the beams and the carved ranma transom keep the character of the original timber.

Q. It is an old building — will we be comfortable?

The building is old, but the parts you actually live with have been brought up to date. The plumbing is new, and every room has its own indoor goemon-style bath. At the same time we have kept what only an old farmhouse has: the texture of wood and earth, and the quiet. In deep winter the house is not sealed as tightly as a modern one, so we heat the rooms before you arrive.