A Deputy's House on the Old Tokaido
Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha (冨田家住宅木南舎, also written Tomita-ke Jūtaku Mokunansha), the former main house of the Tomita family at Motojuku in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, was built in 1827 and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 April 2020.
Motojuku lies on the old Tokaido highway at the eastern edge of Okazaki, on the stretch between the post towns of Fujikawa and Akasaka. In 1698 the district passed to Shibata Katsukado, a hatamoto retainer of the Tokugawa and a descendant of the warlord Shibata Katsuie, who set up a jin'ya, a small administrative office, to manage his holdings from a distance. Running it fell to a locally established family. Tomita Zendayu Tsunehisa took charge of the jin'ya in 1714, and in 1722 his successor Motoemon Shigetsune moved the family home to a plot immediately beside it. The Tomita held the deputy's post, in effect the senior civil official of the district, until the fall of the shogunate.
The house standing there now was raised by the fifth head of the line, Tomita Gunzo Tsunenari, in 1827, a date recorded on the ridge tablet. Tsunenari has a reputation locally as a capable administrator who had irrigation ponds dug during the famine years that began in 1833.
Then the job disappeared. The Restoration of 1868 dissolved the whole apparatus of hatamoto landholding, and in 1870 the Tomita submitted a kino-gan, a formal petition to return to farming. Repairs to part of the upper floor are thought to date from around that moment. The family's second act came in 1903, when the eleventh head, Tomita Jojiro, opened a medical practice on the property. His descendants have been treating patients at Motojuku ever since, and it was that continuity of ownership, unbroken through two changes of profession, that kept the building standing.
A Farmhouse Plan with Warrior-Class Bones
The registration criterion applied here is the first of the three the system offers: that the building contributes to the historic character of the landscape. What that phrasing conceals is how unusual the survival is. Jin'ya were dismantled almost everywhere after 1868, and the houses of the men who staffed them went with them. A deputy's residence still standing next to the site of its own jin'ya is a rare thing.
The structure is timber, two storeys, with a gabled kirizuma roof laid in sangawara pantiles and a registered building area of about 204 square metres. Set on the ridge is a koshi-yane, a small raised monitor that vented smoke from the hearth below. At the rear the main roof continues down over the geya, a lean-to aisle that wraps all four sides of the building, so the eaves come low and the silhouette reads long and grounded rather than tall.
Inside, the north end is doma, packed earth floor, and the south end is raised and boarded.
That much is standard for a prosperous farmhouse in this part of Aichi, and the room arrangement stays close to the six-room plan common in the region. Three details break with it. The earth-floored section is pushed over to the gable end rather than running through the middle. Behind the everyday living rooms, a block of formal zashiki reception rooms turns in an L. And the timbers throughout are heavier than any farming household would have needed or been permitted. Those are the habits of a warrior-class house, worked into a plan a village carpenter knew how to build. The result reads as a document of exactly what a jin'ya deputy was: a man of the locality holding an office of the samurai order.
The Camphor Tree Behind the House
The name is worth pausing over. A plaque reading Mokunansha hangs in the house, and the naming is credited to Baisao Hogan (1760-1828), a figure who devoted himself to sencha steeped tea and is counted as founder of the Baisa school of tea practice. Visiting the property, he is said to have been struck by the breadth of the garden and by the great camphor, kusunoki, standing behind the buildings. The character for camphor, 楠, splits into 木 and 南, the two elements that give the house its name.
The building came close to being lost. It stood empty for roughly half a century, the roof let water in, floors and walls rotted, and animals moved through it. Restoration work on both the main house and the storehouse was carried out in 2018, funded and driven by the family rather than by any public body, with advice from a national association for the reuse of old houses.
Since May 2019 the interior has held an Italian restaurant, Ristorante Yughino Yugo, and dining there is at present the way to see inside. Lunch runs from noon with last orders at 2:00 p.m., dinner from 5:30 p.m. with last orders at 9:30 p.m., and the usual closing day is Wednesday, with occasional additional closures. Telephone reservations are worth making, since the kitchen is small and the dining rooms are the historic rooms. There is no admission charge as such; the building opens to you as a guest at a table.
The storehouse behind, registered on the same day, contains a display room of old documents and household implements drawn from the family's own holdings, and it is the more direct way to meet the deputy's paperwork. Okazaki City has separately designated the compound a building forming historic scenery under its landscape ordinance.
Motojuku Station on the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line is about five minutes away on foot, and limited express services reach it from central Okazaki in roughly ten minutes. The exterior can be looked at from the lane at any time. For photography indoors, ask the restaurant staff first. Hozo-ji, the temple where the boy Takechiyo, later Tokugawa Ieyasu, is said to have taken his lessons, stands a short walk east along the old highway, which makes a half day at Motojuku easy to fill.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha?
- Yes, as a restaurant guest. The building is privately owned and houses Ristorante Yughino Yugo, which serves lunch and dinner in the historic rooms. It is not run as a museum and there is no separate admission ticket, so a table reservation is the practical way in. Wednesday is the regular closing day.
- When was Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha built, and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1827 by Tomita Gunzo Tsunenari, the fifth head of the family, with the date recorded on the ridge tablet. Part of the upper floor was repaired in the early Meiji period, and a full restoration followed in 2018. National registration came on 3 April 2020, under registration number 23-0546.
- What does the name Mokunansha mean?
- It refers to the camphor tree that grew behind the house. The name is attributed to Baisao Hogan (1760-1828), a devotee of steeped sencha tea, who is said to have admired the garden and the camphor on a visit. The character for camphor, 楠, is composed of 木 and 南, and a plaque bearing the name survives in the house.
- How do I get to Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha?
- Take the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line to Motojuku Station, roughly ten minutes by limited express from Higashi Okazaki, then walk about five minutes. The house sits one lane south of National Route 1, on the old Tokaido through the village, and is easy to walk past, so check the map before you set out.
- Is Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha a farmhouse or a samurai residence?
- Both, in a sense. The room arrangement follows the six-room plan of Aichi farmhouses, while the earth-floor section pushed to the gable end, the L-shaped block of formal reception rooms and the unusually heavy timbers all point to warrior-class building practice. The mixture reflects the position of a jin'ya deputy, a local man holding samurai office.
Basic Information
| Name | Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha (冨田家住宅木南舎) |
|---|---|
| Location | 23 Minaminaka-cho, Motojuku-cho, Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 23-0546 |
| Year Designated | 3 April 2020 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, two storeys, tiled roof; building area approx. 204 m² |
| Owner | Private |
| Public Access | In use as Ristorante Yughino Yugo. Interior accessible to restaurant guests; lunch from 12:00, dinner from 17:30, closed Wednesdays with occasional additional closures. Reservations advised. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013257
- Cultural Heritage Online: Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/441476
- Okazaki City: Registered Structures, Tomita Family Residence Mokunansha and Storehouse
- https://www.city.okazaki.lg.jp/bunka/torikumi_bunka/1004568/1004592/1004595/1004621.html
- Bunkazai Navi Aichi, Aichi Prefecture: Tomita-ke Jutaku Mokunansha
- https://jmapps.ne.jp/aichi_bunkazai/det.html?data_id=2358
- Ristorante Yughino Yugo, official site
- https://yughino.com/
Last verified: 2026.08.06