Seikatei, Historical guest house in Kita-ku, Japan.
Seikatei is a small wooden building in Kita-ku, Sapporo, with a Western-style exterior and an interior mixing Japanese and Western rooms. It holds one Western-style room and one Japanese-style room, plus a kitchen with an earthen floor, a genkan, a storage room and a toilet. The layout is irregular inside and out; the Western side measures 22.3 tsubo (about 73.7 m²) and the Japanese side 14.9 tsubo (about 49.4 m²).
The building was constructed in 1880 by the Hokkaido Development Commission to serve as a reception facility for important guests. It played a role in the early period of Hokkaido's development under Meiji influence.
The name Seikatei comes from a line by the Chinese poet Su Shi, and the building served as a meeting place and restaurant after 1897, when it was sold to Kasaburo Tsushima. From around 1912 to 1929 it was rented out as a dwelling, a use later criticised by the preservation movement. Today it stands in Seikatei Park, established in 1959.
Seikatei is open from 9:00 to 16:00 and closed over the New Year holidays; admission is free and there is no car park. It stands in Seikatei Park in Kita-ku, and the phone number listed for the guard post is 011-746-1088.
Unlike many other buildings from the Hokkaido Development Commission, this house was never relocated and still stands in its original location. This continuity makes it a rare witness to that era in Sapporo.
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