Hatajuku Yosegi Kaikan Hall

The Hatajuku Yosegi Kaikan Hall sits as a low, wooden building tucked along the narrow road of Hatajuku. It houses the intricate, geometric wood mosaic craft known as yosegi-zaiku. Back in the Edo period, travelers on the Tokaido road stopped here when the Hakone pass proved too difficult to cross in a single day. Craftsmen began using the local timber to create these puzzles and boxes for those weary passersby, turning the village into the center of this precise, delicate woodworking tradition.