Former Katano Family Residence

About the Former Katano Family Residence

The Former Katano Family Residence (旧片野家住宅, Kyū Katano-ke Jūtaku) is a house and storehouse compound in Hagurocho, Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, built between the mid-Meiji era and 1905, whose main house, brick storehouse, middle storehouse, miso storehouse, and front gate and wall were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 6, 2024. The five entries carry consecutive registration numbers, 05-0240 to 05-0244, and all are owned by Yokote City.

The estate lies south of the site of Yokote Castle, in the old samurai quarter on the east side of the Yokote River. The main house stands in the middle of the plot. Three two-story storehouses are joined directly to it, and a long wall encloses the grounds on the east, south and west. The Agency for Cultural Affairs presents the five as a single household compound and describes the main house as a refined example of modern Japanese-style architecture, with reception rooms finished in fine timber.

Two different criteria were applied. The main house and the brick storehouse were registered as models of design, while the middle storehouse, the miso storehouse and the gate and wall were registered for their contribution to the historic townscape. In other words, two buildings earned their place on the strength of their craftsmanship and three on the strength of what they add to the street.

Uchimachi, the Old Samurai Quarter

Under the castle, the samurai lived in Uchimachi, the "inner town" on the right (east) bank of the Yokote River, which takes in Negishi-machi, Hagurocho, Kami-uchimachi and Futaba-cho. According to Yokote City, most of the samurai houses burned when the castle fell in the Boshin War in 1868, but the old lot lines survive. The Former Katano Family Residence is one of the large houses built on those former samurai lots after the Meiji Restoration.

Plank fences and hedges still line the streets of Hagurocho and Kami-uchimachi. The city has made the area a landscape priority district and counts the Former Katano Family Residence, together with the Endo house in Kami-uchimachi, among its core buildings.

The Kahoku Shimpo newspaper reports that the house belonged to Katano Shigenaga (片野重脩, 1891 to 1978), a figure in Akita's political and business circles whose collection included a letter from the novelist Mori Ōgai and calligraphy by the statesman Inukai Tsuyoshi. The Katano estate is now municipal property.

The Five Structures and How They Fit Together

The national database gives the following dates for the Katano buildings:

• Miso storehouse: 1889
• Main house: mid-Meiji era (1883 to 1897), altered in the early Showa era
• Front gate and wall: mid-Meiji era (1883 to 1897)
• Brick storehouse: 1905
• Middle storehouse: around 1905, altered around 1955

Only the miso storehouse and the brick storehouse have firm dates; a ridge tag (Munafuda) confirms that the brick storehouse's roof frame went up in 1905. A city survey sheet dates the main house more loosely, to somewhere between the Meiji and Taisho eras, so its age is still open to refinement.

The main house faces east toward the front gate. The brick storehouse is attached at its southwest corner, the middle storehouse at the northwest, and the miso storehouse on the north side. A main garden occupies the southeast of the plot, with a smaller forecourt garden between it and the gate. The city records that the garden is attributed to the landscape designer Nagaoka Yasuhei, but the garden itself is not part of the registration.

From the street you see only the gate, the long wall and the rooflines behind it. The way the house and its three storehouses run together as one connected block only becomes clear once you are inside the gate. Each building has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting the Former Katano Family Residence

As of September 2026 we found no regular opening days or hours for the Former Katano Family Residence, and the gate is normally closed. Yokote City opens the property on set dates: an autumn open day including the buildings took place on October 25, 2025, and the garden alone (buildings closed) was open free of charge on May 15 and 16, 2026. During Yokote's kamakura snow-hut festival, snow huts are built in front of the estate's plank wall. Check the city's announcements before you go, or call the Traditional Culture Division of the Yokote City Board of Education (0182-32-2403).

There is no standing photography policy that we could find. Coverage of the spring garden opening noted that visitors could stroll the garden and take pictures with the house as a backdrop. On days when the interiors are open, follow the instructions given on site.

The registered address is 65 Hagurocho; the city uses the postal address 10-20 Hagurocho. The estate is about 1.1 kilometers east of JR Yokote Station (Ou Main Line and Kitakami Line) in a straight line, across the Yokote River; allow roughly 20 minutes on foot. There is no visitor parking, so drivers should check the parking arrangements in the city's notice for each open day.