Enomoto Family Residence Main House

What Is the Enomoto Family Residence Main House?

The Enomoto Family Residence Main House (榎本家住宅主屋, Enomoto-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is the two-storey timber home of the Enomoto family in Fusa, Abiko City, Chiba Prefecture; built in the early Showa era, between 1926 and 1945, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 December 2024.

The house stands along the Tone River levee and covers a building area of 56 square meters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that it was relocated around 1958: when the levee was widened, the whole building was jacked up and moved by hikiya (曳家) rather than dismantled, and Abiko City's own account also counts the Omoya among the buildings moved.

Abiko City explains how the date was reached. Besides the style of the building, the clue was a zodiac year written inside a jibukuro, a low built-in cupboard, on the upper floor, which points to the first years of the Showa era.

A Hipped Roof and a Gabled Porch

The Enomoto Family Residence Main House runs east to west under a hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof covered in Sangawara-buki pan tiles. At the southwest corner a porch projects under its own hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri roof, so the change of roof shape marks the entrance where guests were received.

Look up at the eaves. They are carried out on dashigeta brackets: arms project from the posts, a beam rests across their tips, and the rafters sit on that beam. The eaves therefore reach well beyond the wall and throw a deep band of shadow across the facade, a look favored for the houses of merchants and old landed families. The Agency describes the result as a dignified exterior.

Reception Rooms Facing the South Garden

Inside, the Omoya is organized around its Zashiki reception rooms. On both floors they are laid out as connecting suites that open to the south, onto a lawn with a single large crape myrtle at its center. From the upper floor the rooms look down over that garden.

The finest room is the west room upstairs. The polished rail at the front of its Tokonoma alcove, the tokogamachi, is made of karaki, the collective name for dense, dark tropical hardwoods such as rosewood, ebony and ironwood that Japan imported from the south. Using such timber for the most conspicuous member in the room was a deliberate mark of status, and the Agency singles the room out as elaborately finished. Its database includes a photograph of this 8-mat room taken from the south.

Why It Was Registered

The Enomoto Family Residence Main House was registered, under number 12-0328, for its contribution to the historic landscape. In the Agency's assessment, the two-storey exterior with its bracketed eaves forms the core of the old family's estate as seen from outside.

Of the six registered buildings on the estate, only the Omoya and the north storehouse have two storeys, and the Omoya is the only one with living rooms stacked on two levels.

Visiting

The Enomoto Family Residence Main House is a private home, and neither the building nor its grounds are open to the public. The upstairs alcove and the connecting rooms cannot be seen in person.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database has a view of the exterior from the southeast and a photograph of the upstairs 8-mat room, and Abiko City's page on the residence shows the house from outside. If you are in the area, please stay off private land and respect the privacy of the family who live here.