Minako Ishida spent two years frequenting a white mansion suspended over the sea, eager to grasp just what about the property enthralled the famous connoisseur who now owns it.

The photographer's desire was fueled by her many conversations with Teruhisa Kitahara about his love for what was previously a villa of the former Prince Takeda, who seceded from the imperial family after World War II.

A Briton owned the former imperial villa, located in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in the postwar period before it changed hands several times, eventually falling to Kitahara.

The 76-year-old director of the Tin Toy Museum in Yokohama’s Naka Ward was in his 30s when a column in the young adult magazine Popeye caught his eye.

“A house that ended up using the sea as a garden,” read the headline.

Completed in 1935, the early Showa Era (1926-1989) edifice combines modernism with Art Deco, which was in vogue from the 1910s to 1930s in Western countries.

It also doubles as a boathouse with a sweeping view of Sagami Bay and contains a docking area for vessels coming in from the sea.

The mansion stands in an equally scenic area with country residences all around and the neighboring town is the seat of an imperial villa.

Kitahara often talked about the villa on the audio-based social media platform Clubhouse, including the story about how it captivated him at first glance. The director is also one of the antiques appraisers appearing in “Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan” (Better Luck! We appraise everything), a popular TV program.

Kitahara acquired the residence in the late 1990s, nearly two decades after he fell in love with it, and is using the premises as a guesthouse, Ishida said. 

Ishida, 61, has since compiled her pieces into a book from Nikkei National Geographic Inc. that borrows that Popeye headline, “Umi wo Niwa ni Shite Shimatta Ie” (A house that ended up using the sea as a garden).

The publication is subtitled “A beautiful piece of early Showa Era’s Western-style architecture: former Prince Takeda’s villa” and released earlier in October.

As the villa nudged the course of Kitahara’s life, another building had done the same for Ishida before all of this.  

GRANDFATHER’S ATELIER

Ishida attended the department of photography at the Nihon University College of Art.

She studied under news photographer Jun Miki (1919-1992) whose shot of former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (1878-1967) with his mouth chomped around a cigar made the cover of the acclaimed U.S. photojournalism magazine Life.

Among other stints, Ishida worked as an assistant at an ad studio before switching to her current life as a freelancer.

Japanese landscapes, tradition and faith are some recurring themes in her photos.

Her career reached a turning point seven years ago when Ishida moved to live in an atelier in the town of Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The atelier was built about six decades ago by her grandfather Shigene Kanamaru (1900-1977), who is one of the trailblazers of Japan’s photography scene. An architect who came to repair the building got excited about its exterior, blurting out, “Oh, these beams.”

The atelier—beams included—was designed by an architect who worked for Antonin Raymond (1888-1976), who was a Czech-born architect known for his introduction of Western-style architecture to Japanese houses.

The architect had therefore followed Raymond’s typical approach in styling the beams.

Ishida never directly asked her grandfather about his thoughts on photography because she never thought at the time that she would walk the same path as him.

The atelier, however, prompted her to give fresh thought to her grandfather and take more interest in Western architecture.

This gave her foundational knowledge, to a certain extent, when she found herself at the villa that Kitahara had acquired.

Ishida quoted Kitahara as saying that he set aside, temporarily, the question of how to raise the funds for a purchase and continued talking passionately to others about his determination to buy the prince’s residence until he finally realized his long-cherished dream.

During Japan’s asset-inflated economic boom of the late 1980s, the former owners opted for resplendent interior design when they renovated the villa. The residence had fallen into disrepair after exposure to ocean winds and moisture and drying out.

Kitahara, on the contrary, sought to restore the mansion to the state it was in when it was built.

Ishida said she realized once again that antiques of everyday items, such as clocks and other personal effects, were likely the starting point for Kitahara as a collector.

“I become impatient whenever I encounter something that pulls at my heartstrings,” Ishida quoted Kitahara as telling her. “Your dream will come true if only you continue wishing for it.”

MORE THAN 40 VISITS

Ishida began taking photos of the mansion in October 2022.

She visited the premises on more than 40 occasions to photograph the property during the seasons and times of day of her choosing, such as morning and evening.

Her subjects include a semicircular window that commands a view of Enoshima island and Mount Fuji on clear days. As far as decor, she captured sofas and table sets acquired in Japan and overseas that were arranged to suit the style of design sensibilities from the time.

Along with her photos, Ishida’s book also contains columns that she wrote with the advice of experts including Terunobu Fujimori, a famed architect and architectural historian.

“I exerted my originality and ingenuity to make sure that readers will see the historical background,” she said.