The nostalgic wooden school building, built in 1958, has withstood heavy snowfalls for more than 60 years and is still carefully protected by the people. Eighty clean beds (5 classrooms, 16 beds each) are provided in the space that used to be a classroom. In the dining hall, the partitions between the classrooms have been removed, allowing all guests to gather together. In addition, there is a gymnasium for seminars, lectures, and sports events, a library, and a schoolyard that is covered with snow in winter. For bathing, please use the one-day bathing facilities of Matsunoyama Onsen, one of the three major medicinal hot springs in Japan (10 minutes by car).

Please be sure to confirm the following facility use details before making a reservation.

Reservations for 2025

▼Individuals (10 people)

▼Groups (10 or more people.)

About the area

Echigo Matsunoyama, where Sansho House is located, is known as one of the snowiest areas in Japan, with an average snowfall of over 3 meters in winter. The lifestyle of the people who live on this mountainous land has created a landscape of terraced rice paddies that is said to be the original landscape of Japan, and has been selected as one of the “100 best terraced rice paddies in Japan” and the “100 best villages in Japan. The beech forests, represented by the beautiful forests, are home to rare plants and animals such as the akashobin and bubkoso. Matsunoyama Onsen is one of the three best medicinal hot springs in Japan for its high salt content, hot water temperature, and moisturizing effect.

Meals

Please enjoy delicious rice cooked with rice grown in the terraced rice paddies of Matsunoyama, based on local home cooking. Dinner is served set meal style, which changes daily, and breakfast is served with bread on some days.

About the use of Sansho House

Staff are Japanese-speaking only.

◇Sansho House is an accommodation facility in a renovated wooden school building, and the rooms are not equipped with air conditioning. Please understand that during periods of extreme heat, it may be hot in the rooms, so please make reservations accordingly.
《Summer》 Rooms are not equipped with air-conditioning, and we provide fans and simple cooling fans in the rooms, as well as cooling agents. During periods of extreme heat, room temperatures can become quite high.
《Winter》 kerosene heaters will be provided in the rooms and electric sheets will be provided on each bed.

◇Please sleep on bunk beds separated by curtains in the space that used to be a classroom. Rooms are assigned by gender.
*Children under 10 years old can share a room with a parent or guardian regardless of gender. Please apply for either male or female room at the time of application.

◇Alcohol is not allowed to be brought into the hotel. Please use the on-site sales (cash-on-delivery). Eating and drinking are allowed in the dining room only.

◇Amenity services such as towels and toothbrushes are not provided. (They are available for purchase inside the building.)

◇Sansho House has only showers for bathing. We recommend that you use the one-day hot spring bathing facilities located about 10 minutes away by car.

◇Lights out at 23:00. In addition to the general guests, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale staff and related persons will also use the facilities during the Triennale. The basic rules of operation remain the same, but please understand that in some cases, there may be people using the facility at different hours from other users.

◇There are no locks on the rooms. Please use the locker for valuables or manage your own valuables.