A merchant's country villa by Takeda Goichi
Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House (明治村芝川家住宅主屋) is a house completed in 1911 and now standing at the Meiji Mura museum in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.
It was built at Kamikotoen in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, as a country villa for Shibakawa Matazaemon, an Osaka merchant. The museum labels the building Shibakawa Matazaemon Residence (芝川又右衛門邸), so the name on the national register and the name on the site map differ. Both are worth carrying in your head when you look for it.
The architect was Takeda Goichi (武田五一). At the time he headed the design department at the Kyoto Higher Technical School of Arts; he later founded the architecture department at Kyoto Imperial University. He had spent about two and a half years studying in Europe beginning in 1901, and immediately after returning he designed a house for the trader Fukushima Yukinobu that brought Art Nouveau into Japan. The Shibakawa commission reached him after a second trip through Europe and America to study parliamentary buildings.
The house was damaged in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 and taken apart. It was donated to Meiji Mura that same year. Reconstruction began in 2005 to mark the museum's fortieth anniversary, finished in 2007, and the building opened to visitors in September of that year.
Why the building was listed
The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites it as a fine example of a house blending Japanese and Western design, naming Takeda as the architect. Its registration number is 23-0284 and the criterion is that the building offers a model of design. It was registered rather than designated, the two being separate systems under Japanese heritage law. Registered houses are numerous; ones with a documented architect, built at a turning point in that architect's own work, are not.
The house is timber framed in two storeys under a tiled roof, with a building area of 165 square meters. The ground floor reads as European, with an open veranda and a bow window pushing out from the wall. The upper floor is Japanese. Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House avoids the usual failure of that arrangement, where two unrelated buildings appear stacked on each other. The official assessment makes the same point about the two halves holding together.
The exterior has its own history. Old photographs show the walls originally clad in cedar bark. When a Japanese style wing was added in 1927, the outside was substantially altered, and by the time photographs appeared in a 1933 collection of Takeda's works the finish had become Spanish in character. The reconstruction at Meiji Mura aimed at the version recorded in that 1933 volume. What visitors see now is the house as it stood after those alterations, not as it stood in 1911.
What to look for
Vienna in the window mullions
The proportions carry it, but the detail is where the architect's European years surface: the mullion assembly in the bay window of the upstairs Japanese room, the sash windows, the chimneys rising at front and rear, and the light fittings. Takeda had absorbed the Vienna Secession and the Glasgow school, and the preference for straight lines and flat planes follows from that. Rather than hunting for ornament, stand back and read the window grid and the outline of the chimneys.
Woven ceiling over a Western room
The ground floor hall has Western Shikkui lime plaster walls. Above them the ceiling is set with panels of woven cypress strip and reed screen in a checkerboard. An Ajiro-tenjō belongs to the Sukiya-zukuri vocabulary of tea houses and Japanese rooms, and here it has been lifted into a European interior. The exchange runs the other way upstairs, where a fireplace hides behind sliding paper doors in the Zashiki. In both rooms the interesting thing sits above your head or behind a screen.
Standing on the rise
Inside the museum the house occupies plot 68 in the district labelled 3-chōme, on high ground. Since it was built as a villa in a suburban garden district, that isolation is closer to its original condition than a tight urban setting would be. Step onto the veranda and look out: the openness was part of the brief. A building guide operates on site with no reservation needed, though the museum limits numbers inside when necessary to protect the fabric.
Visiting Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House
Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House is an exhibit building at the Meiji Mura open air museum, covered by general admission with no separate charge. Tickets cost 2,500 yen for adults, 1,500 yen for high school students, 700 yen for junior high and elementary school students, and nothing for preschool children (checked September 2026). Groups of 20 or more pay a reduced rate, and an annual pass is available.
Hours change through the year. March, April through July, September and October: 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. August: 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. November: 9:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., extended to 5:00 p.m. on weekends and public holidays. December through February: 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The ticket office closes 30 minutes before the museum does. Irregular closures fall in summer and winter, so check the calendar on the official site before you travel.
Personal photography requires no application. Long sessions inside buildings are prohibited, as are tripods, monopods and reflectors, and any shooting that occupies an entrance or a narrow corridor. When a guide is working the room, keep the circulation route clear.
To get there, take the Gifu Bus service for Meiji Mura from the east exit of Meitetsu Inuyama Station to the terminus, or an express bus direct from the Meitetsu Bus Centre at Nagoya Station. Drivers should allow 3 kilometers from the Komaki Higashi interchange on the Chūō Expressway; parking outside the north gate costs 1,000 yen for a standard car. The grounds are large and steep in places. A village bus circles 9 stops in about 20 minutes and will save you the climb to the third district.
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Q&A
- Who designed Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House?
- Takeda Goichi, then head of the design department at the Kyoto Higher Technical School of Arts and later founder of the architecture department at Kyoto Imperial University. The national register names him in its statement of reasons.
- Is Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House the same building as the Shibakawa Matazaemon Residence?
- Yes. The first is the name under which it appears in the national cultural properties database; the second is the display name used by the Meiji Mura museum.
- Where did the Shibakawa house originally stand, and why was it moved?
- At Kamikotoen in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. The Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 damaged it badly enough that it had to be dismantled; it was donated to Meiji Mura that year and its reconstruction was completed in 2007.
- Can visitors go inside, and is there a guided tour?
- The interior is open as a museum exhibit. A building guide runs on site without reservation, but the museum may cap the number of people inside at one time to protect the structure.
- Does the exterior look the way it did when the house was built?
- No. The original walls were clad in cedar bark. The finish was changed when a Japanese wing was added in 1927, and the reconstruction targeted the appearance photographed for a 1933 collection of Takeda Goichi's works.
Basic Information
| Name | Meiji Village Shibakawa Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | Meiji Mura, 1 Uchiyama, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2008 (Heisei 20) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 165 square meters, 2 storeys, timber frame |
| Owner | Meiji Mura Public Interest Foundation |
| Public Access | Open. Interior viewable as an exhibit building at Meiji Mura (on site building guide, no reservation) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Meijimura Shibakawake Jutaku Shuoku
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00006857
- Cultural Heritage Online: Meijimura Shibakawake Jutaku Shuoku
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/197849
- Meiji Mura Museum: Shibakawa Matazaemon Residence
- https://www.meijimura.com/sight/%E8%8A%9D%E5%B7%9D%E5%8F%88%E5%8F%B3%E8%A1%9B%E9%96%80%E9%82%B8/
- Meiji Mura Museum: Opening hours and closing days
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/open/
- Meiji Mura Museum: Tickets and admission
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/price/
- Meiji Mura Museum: Access
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/access/
Last verified: 2026.09.03