“Oya stone doesn’t have the coldness associated with other stones, because it isn’t so hard. It has characteristics that are just in-between stone and wood. And because it isn’t so hard, it’s easy to feel an intimacy with it. Though it may not be the most high-quality stone, I can’t help but feel something fundamentally Japanese in Oya stone.”

These are the words of Soetsu Yanagi. Over the course of many visits to Tochigi, he fell in love with the stone roofs of the houses in the area. He eventually purchased a Nagaya Gate* from an old residence in Utsunomiya, and had it transferred to Tokyo.

This became his home, which can be seen today located in front of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum.

When viewing the home from the front, it is clear that the stone roof tiles on the right-hand corner have been repaired using new Oya stone.

*A traditional form of architecture that combines a longhouse (a Nagaya) with a gate.