Ben's House

Introduction

Ben's House stands on Yamamoto-dori in Kitano. It was built in 1902 as a trading house in the old foreign settlement and later moved here in one piece, taking its name from the British hunter Ben Allison who lived in it. Kobe designates it a traditional building, and the moat and low wall at the front gate, made from red bricks ordered from Germany at the time, are separately listed as a city cultural property; the interior was refurbished in 2019. Inside it is unlike most ijinkan: instead of matched antique furniture, the rooms hold the owner's hunting trophies from around the world. A polar bear nearly three metres tall, one of the largest moose specimens anywhere, an American bison and wolves line the ground floor, while an entire wall upstairs is given to butterflies, a few of them whimsically painted with human faces. The mood is closer to an explorer's cabinet of curiosities than to a Meiji drawing room. The timber frame, window surrounds and clapboard siding survive as built, and the rooms are dim, so the specimens reward a close look. At JPY 550 it is one of the cheaper houses in Kitano, open to 18:00 in summer and 17:00 in winter, every day of the year, with a three-house pass covering the English House and Yokan Nagaya next door. It is fifteen minutes uphill from Sannomiya, the City Loop stops at the gate, and there are no toilets or lockers inside.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info