Eloise Cunningham’s House
Writer　Akiko Shimojo

I was waiting for that house. That’s the only thing I could think of. A simple yet sophisticated wooden exterior and richness of the space inside it -- It was love at first sight, and before I knew it, I was saying, “I will take it.” You open the expansive sliding screens on the south side and open the glass door. Once all the doors are stored in the door cases on right and left, the view from there is like a picture that gives you a breather. I had been looking for it for quite a long time: Five years, or maybe even more than ten years. Every time I came to Karuizawa, I got myself down in that area and looked around. I did not want to compromise. I made up my mind to keep searching until I find a house that I like. I could have custom made one but then again, I was afraid of ending up with something that was different from what I had envisioned.

Atago District in Kyu-Karuizawa is where missionaries from Europe and the United States spent their summer in the Meiji Era. Eloise Cunningham, the former owner of this house, too, was taken by her father there and enjoyed her summers there since she was 2 or 3 years old. This old house is situated on 1,000 tsubo land (=approx. 35,540 sq. ft), and the letters, “CUNNINGHAM,” are still inscribed on the stone gate. There is a stone bench, too. The house has been torn down, which was later split into two houses. The stone pillars and the bench are now on their last legs but still exist there.

Eloise lived in Japan till she died at the age of 100. She spent her summers in the house built on one of the split 300 tsubo lots with her younger sister who came to visit her from the United States. She was also a benefactor to young Japanese people who were given the opportunities to listen to orchestras and fostered to become musicians by her. Eloise’s house in Tokyo was designed by Raymond, which basically borrowed the landscape of the Nezu Art Museum as if it were its own. She asked Junzo Yoshimura, a good friend of hers, who was also an apprentice of Raymond, to build her house in Karuizawa.

When I decided to buy the house, I knew the house had belonged to Eloise Cunningham but did not know it was the work of Junzo Yoshimura. I made an instantaneous decision simply because I was fascinated by the expansiveness of the space, the way the front fireplace was made such that it looked like an altar in a church, and by the landscape on the other side of the Yoshimura sliding screens.

Later on, I learned that it was designed by Junzo Yoshimura,
whom I have always been admiring through his portfolios. Words cannot describe how surprised and delighted I was to learn that. I was convinced that I was meant for this house.

I have been using the house without retouching anything except I put a bath tub in the bathroom that used to only have a shower and changed the gas in the kitchen to electric. The house was built to be used only in the summer, so I did build a small cottage next to it so that I could come here in the winter as well. One of the things I love most is the moment when I sit on the chair out on the deck designed by Junzo Yoshimura, listening to the sound of the wind that courses through tall treetops and smelling the rain while letting my mind wander around idly. It was in this house that I wrote my non-fiction, “Eloise Cunningham’s House” (published by Hakusui-sha Co., Ltd.)