Watanabe Family Residence

The Watanabe Family Residence

The Watanabe Family Residence (渡部家住宅) in Ishidoriya, Hachimantai, Kazuno City, Akita Prefecture, is the homestead of an old local family, and its gate of the late Edo period, main house of 1891 and storehouse of 1902 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to Akita Prefecture, the Watanabe family descends from zaigo bushi, samurai who lived on their rural holdings rather than in a castle town, and its members served as officials of the Hanawa magistrate's office. The residence stands on the site of Ishidoriya, a medieval fortified residence. The Agency likewise describes the main house as the home of a landowner of zaigo bushi descent, and Kazuno City lists all three buildings as privately owned.

The Three Buildings

The gate dates from the late Edo period, the main house from 1891 and the storehouse from 1902 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Family records give the year the main house was framed and the name of its master carpenter, and records show that the same carpenter built the storehouse, so the house and its rice store were raised one after the other behind an older gate.

The main house sits at the centre, with the gate to the south and the storehouse to the northeast (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Together with the stone steps of the approach, the gate forms the formal front of the residence, while the storehouse roof is turned 45 degrees from the ridge of the main house. Each building is described on its own page.

• Main House (registration number 05-0137): 1891, single-storey timber, thatch temporarily covered in sheet iron, 374 m²; registered as a model of design
• Storehouse (05-0138): 1902, 2-storey dozo-zukuri, sheet-iron roof, 124 m²; registered for its contribution to the historic landscape
• Gate (05-0139): late Edo period, timber, sheet-iron roof, 4.7 m wide, with stone steps; registered for its contribution to the historic landscape

Visiting and Getting There

All three buildings belong to a private home, and neither Kazuno City nor Akita Prefecture publishes visiting information. Commercial travel listings describe the house as the Watanabe Family Archive Museum, open by reservation, but this could not be confirmed in official sources. Check in advance before going, and do not enter the grounds uninvited.

The residence lies about 2.4 kilometres west-northwest of Hachimantai Station on the JR Hanawa Line in a straight line, and about 4.3 kilometres south of Kazuno-Hanawa Station (approximate, calculated from station positions published by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan).

Names and Readings

The family name 渡部 is read Watanabe here, not Watabe (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The place name 石鳥谷 is read Ishidoriya, as given in the kana title of a Kazuno City Board of Education survey report on the medieval fort sites of the area.