Kyoto's Poet's House Rakushisha

A sacred place for haiku

Illaura Rossiter Mar 26, 2019 - 1 min read

With persimmons ripening on the tree, the "Hut of Fallen Persimmons" has a certain elegance about it

From a short distance away, you can see the thatched roof poking out over the surrounding shrubs

The outside of the "Hut of Fallen Persimmons". During the Edo period, the straw coat and hat hanging on the wall would have indicated whether the residents were home.

Inside the kitchen, you can feel the simplicity of the previous inhabitants' lives

A stone with a haiku from the famous poet Basho carved into it

A four and a half tatami room, and a three tatami mat room

Another small hut to the west of the main building. Here, visitors can enjoy tea for 700 yen

Located in Kyoto's Sugano district, at the foot of Mount Ogura lies Rakushisha. Also known as the "Hut of Fallen Persimmons", this was the hermitage of the famous Edo Period haiku poet Mukai Kyorai. According to a book by Kyorai, a man once came from the city and offered to buy all the fruit on the heavily laden branches of the persimmon tree. However, that night, every last persimmon fell from the tree. This story is where the hut gets its name.

The famed poet Matsuo Basho was also said to have come to this hut three times to visit Kyorai, who was considered to be his number one disciple. After Kyorai's death, the building became uninhabitable after years of disuse, and was destroyed in 1704. However, a disciple rebuilt the hut in 1770. The persimmon tree, however, is said to be 300 years old and, as such, may be the same tree that Basho himself looked upon when he visited.

Rakushisha is roughly a six-minute walk north from Torokko Arashiyama Station on the JR Sagano Railway.

Illaura Rossiter @illaura.rossiter

A semi-professional photographer and English teacher, Illaura is a long-term resident of Japan who photographs every day life and scenes in Japan to promote a better understanding of Japanese culture.