🇯🇵Japan·Seen from outside

Flying Mud Boat (空飛ぶ泥舟)

Chino, Nagano Prefecture

Sources checked November 2026

“A tea room with a boat's hull, hung from cables above a field.”

Year: 2010
Architect: Terunobu Fujimori
Type: Suspended tea room
Access: Seen from the outside only; private property, interior closed except for guided tours and events (Chino tourist board, November 2026)

Terunobu Fujimori designed this suspended tea room for a 2010 exhibition at the art museum of his home town, Chino; workshop participants, local craftsmen and the architect built it together. Moved in 2011 to a field in the district where he grew up, close to Takasugi-an, it can now be seen from the outside.

Directions

In depth ≈ 1 min read

History

In 2010, the Chino City Museum of Art, housed in the town's civic centre, devoted an exhibition to Terunobu Fujimori, a native of Chino: "Terunobu Fujimori, Memories of Suwa and Fujimori Architecture", from 24 July to 29 August. For the occasion Fujimori designed a tea room, made during a public workshop that he led: participants and local craftsmen built it with him, using materials from the region. It was built on the East Square, in front of the civic centre, and stayed on show there until 28 March 2011; its interior was then open to visitors, by reservation.

On 29 March 2011 the tea room was moved to the part of Chino where Fujimori was born and grew up, into a field diagonally below Takasugi-an (高過庵), another tea room he designed. Copper plates were fixed to the posts to protect it from the rain; on 16 April the tea room was lifted again and the move was complete.

Architecture

The tea room hangs above the field from four cables, about 3.5 m off the ground, and one enters it by a ladder. When it was built, in 2010, its bottom was carried by a 9 mm wire passed beneath it: the wire sagged under the weight of the hull, which thus stayed stable.

Use today

It is one of the three "Fujimori" tea rooms of Chino, with Takasugi-an and Hikusugi-an (低過庵).

Visiting

Private property: it can be seen from the outside, and the interior is open only during guided tours or events. It stands a short walk from the Jinchōkan Moriya Historical Museum. From JR Chino station it is about a 40-minute walk; by car, the Suwa interchange is 2.3 km away, or 8 minutes.