Sparrow House

In Fushimi, an area famous for its charcoal-grilled sparrow delicacies, there was a building known as “Sparrow House” (Suzume no o-yado 雀のお宿). A well-known tourist attraction among Japanese tourists, whose hanging gourds featured in elementary school textbooks in the Taishō period, it featured in few English-language tourist guidebooks.

Terry’s guidebooks were an exception, however, and typically carried a lengthy review (see below). The original “owner of the house” mentioned in the passage was a samurai from the Ako domain.