The Shop-House on the Main Street
The Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House (佐々木利三郎家住宅主屋) is the main house of a merchant family of the mid-Meiji era (1883 to 1897) in Iwaki Kameda, Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 29, 2016 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
The Agency records a single-storey timber building roofed in sheet iron, with a building area of 235 square metres, altered in 1920, 1938 and 1959; registration number 05-0209.
A Ridge Thrust over the Street
The Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House stands in the merchant quarter of the old Kameda castle town, combining shop and home under one roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof faces the street end-on, and the ridge is carried far forward over a projecting entrance. Yurihonjo City reads this long ridge as a mark of rank among Kameda's leading merchant houses. The prefecture describes the entrance gable as a cusped karahafu, the city as a gently swelling mukuri gable.
Through the great door, a stone-paved Toriniwa runs straight back through the house (Yurihonjo City). It is 15.3 metres long, of which 12.3 metres are within the registered building, and has no ceiling, so the heavy adze-dressed beams and bracketing are open to view. West of the passage, the upper and lower reception rooms face the street, with the hearth room, or chanoma, behind them. The lower room served as the shop in the Meiji and Taisho eras, and the pot hook over the hearth is the one hung when the house was built.
The three rooms east of the passage were added as guest rooms in 1938 by Hirokichi, then head of the family, together with a garden that the verandas and glazed doors open onto (Yurihonjo City). Doors in the southern room carry painted Chinese boys, bamboo and plum, and the sliding doors are changed with the seasons, paper in winter and reed screens in summer. A family altar room juts out to the west; its upper half has a Saobuchi-tenjō batten ceiling over a large altar, the lower half a Gō-tenjō coffered ceiling. With the 4-mat space before it opened up, the altar room joins the upper room to make 12 mats, and with the lower room and hearth room a single space of 34 mats.
Why It Was Registered
The Agency registered the house for its contribution to the historic landscape, noting reception rooms fitted in full with Zashiki-kazari, the alcove and shelves of a formal room, that record how the wealthiest local merchants lived. Yurihonjo City sees in the ridge, the deep passage behind its great door and the room plan a merchant house that still keeps the form handed down from the feudal period, and ranks it as the representative merchant building of Kameda.
History and Alterations
According to Yurihonjo City, the house is said to have been built over several years by the head of the family, Sasaki Risaburo (1839 to 1894), and it appears on a town map of 1894. The roof was first laid with wooden shingles and changed to sheet iron in 1943.
The upper reception room was refitted, with its own gate and a private lavatory, when the head of the Higashi Honganji temple stayed at the house in 1921 (Akita Prefecture; Yurihonjo City). The Agency lists an alteration in 1920; the sources do not make clear how the two dates relate.
What to Look For
From the street, look up at the ridge end thrust far out over the gabled entrance. The verandas still hold their original hand-blown window glass in snow-viewing shoji (Yurihonjo City). Inside, the adze-dressed timbers open above the passage and the old pot hook in the hearth room are the details to look for, and the far end of the passage lines up with the door of the rice storehouse behind.
Visiting
The Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House is a private home, and no official information on interior access was found. Its ridge and entrance face Prefectural Route 69 and can be seen from the street.
Q&A
- When was the Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House built?
- In the mid-Meiji era, between 1883 and 1897 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Sasaki Risaburo is said to have spent several years building it.
- What should I look for at the Sasaki Risaburo main house?
- The ridge carried far out over the street, and the 15.3-metre earth-floored passage with its timbers open to view.
- What is unusual about the family altar room?
- It projects as a separate room with batten and coffered ceilings, and opens up with the rooms around it into a single space of 34 mats.
- Can I visit the Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House?
- It is a private home with no official information on interior access; the front can be seen from Prefectural Route 69.
- When was the Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House registered?
- On November 29, 2016 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).
Basic Information
| Name | Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House (佐々木利三郎家住宅主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | Iwaki Kameda, Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2016/11/29 (Heisei 28) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber, sheet-iron roof, 235 m² |
| Owner | Private owner |
| Public Access | Private residence; no official information on public access |
References
- Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence Main House (Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011233
- Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence (Akita Prefecture, Japanese)
- https://www.pref.akita.lg.jp/uploads/public/archive_0000011260_00/sasakirisaburokejutaku.pdf
- Sasaki Risaburo Family Residence (Yurihonjo City Board of Education, Japanese)
- https://www.city.yurihonjo.lg.jp/_res/projects/default_project/_page_/001/003/561/1003561_003.pdf
Last verified: 2026.10.20
