The Four Seasons of Buaiso, the Former Shirasu Residence

The Former Shirasu Residence Buaiso (Machida, Tokyo) is a facility consisting of a museum, restaurant, shop and more, opening to the public the house where Jiro Shirasu (1902–1985) and his wife Masako (1910–1998) lived until their deaths. Jiro Shirasu, who devoted himself to Japan's post-war reconstruction, moved in 1943, during the Pacific War, to a vacant thatched farmhouse built at the end of the Edo period in Tsurukawa village (now Machida, Tokyo). Because the area lay on the former border between Musashi and Sagami provinces, Jiro named it Buaiso, a pun on buaiso ("unsociable"). Believing that Tokyo would eventually be burned to the ground by air raids and suffer food shortages, he began, with his wife Masako, a life surrounded by things they loved and devoted to farm work. The two renovated the house in a modern style and planted flowers and trees on the grounds; Jiro made everyday items and furniture, and Masako put her favourite antiques to use as furnishings and tableware. The photographer Kayoko Asai has captured in beautiful photographs the rich time the couple spent, the things they loved, and the scenes and landscapes of each season that can be felt at the Former Shirasu Residence Buaiso. Their eldest daughter, Katsurako Makiyama, writes of little-known anecdotes and memories of her parents, offering a glimpse of a refined way of living and being that has never faded.

Publisher: Shogakukan
Publication year: 2025
Pages: 192
Dimensions: 264 × 190 mm

Shirasu Residence / Japanese Lifestyle / Historic House