A stately house full of history and tragedy

Tokyo

A SENSE of the Showa era floated inside the heavy gates of Tekigaiso, the mansion that was home to Japan' pre-war prime minister, Fumimaro Konoe.

The one-storey wooden mansion was built in 1927 by Tatsukichi Irisawa, a court physician of the then Imperial Household Ministry, in Ogikubo, a popular area for vacation homes on the outskirts of Tokyo at the time.

Mr Konoe purchased it 10 years later, and elder statesman Kinmochi Saionji named it Tekigaiso.

"We originally lived in an area that is now a part of Chiyoda Ward, but because we had visitors so often, our father decided to move to Ogikubo, thinking nobody would visit us there," Mr Konoe's second son, Michitaka, once said.

Ogikubo has changed into a residential area over the years. After you pass through the busy shopping avenue in front of Ogikubo Station and walk south for a while, you will see a property partially hidden by trees. Its atmosphere is quite different from the sur…