Minaguchiya gallery

I'm interested in whether any posters have visited the Minaguchiya Gallery (formerly ryokan) in Okitsu? We're visiting the Shimizu area in October and are thinking of going there. Would be interested in what it's like and what type of displays/art are shown.

Well, we visited the Minaguchiya in Okitsu a week ago and discovered, to our dismay, what has happened to it.
Okitsu has changed, and one of the major changes has been the building of a highway bypass that has cut the inn off from Suruga Bay. Also, the facilities of Shimizu Port appear to have expanded into Okitsu.
However, the situation of the inn was a shock. Past posts have indicated that it has become a gallery and corporate training center. What actually happened is that the inn, lacking business, was sold in 1984 (after 17 generations) to another operator. After another year of unsuccessful operation it was sold again, this time to some sort of rich corporate guy. Who he is and what corporation he owns is a secret. What he has done is basically closed the inn. The old kitchen area has been walled off, visually sanitized, and turned into a gallery of the inn's history. A docent took us through, and the displays of pics, documents and artifacts were interesting enough. However we were told that the inn itself is totally off-limits. NO one gets in there except the occasional cleaning crew. The docent had seen it once. In an act of incredible meanness, the owner reportedly has barred even members of the Mochizuki family, owners of the inn for 17 generations, from visiting the actual inn area, limiting them to the gallery. Even the beautiful garden area cannot be entered. Since the inn has no future potential as an inn, the future is unknown. As far as the corporate training center, it was built adjacent to the inn, but is not part of it.
Visiting Okitsu is still worthwhile because of the presence of Seikenji, one of the most attractive and historically important temples in the area, but a visit to the Minaguchiya, immortalized by Oliver Statler's "Japanese Inn", is now virtually pointless.