Iinuma Honke Main House

Facing East at the Back of the Estate

Iinuma Honke Main House is a mid-Edo-period farmhouse in the Umabashi district of Shisui, Chiba Prefecture, extended around 1921 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 27 October 2017.

It stands near the middle of the rear part of the estate, on the plateau, and faces east. The building is of wood, single storey with a 2-storey section, under a tiled roof, with a floor area of 237 square metres. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database places its construction between 1661 and 1751.

The roof was originally thatch. Inside, an earthen-floored Doma adjoins six rooms set in two rows, with a storeroom called nando behind the wide hiroma. Three of the rooms, the genkan, nakanoma and okunoma, once had posts standing at the middle of the partitions between them. That skeleton is shared by farmhouses across Chiba.

How the Mid-Edo Date Was Reached

Iinuma Honke Main House was listed under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of Japan. The dating rests on the timber rather than the silhouette. Chiba Prefecture's board of education points to three things: tool marks left by a hamaguriba adze, the thickness of the Nuki tie beams, and an early plan form that can be reconstructed from reused members.

A hamaguriba adze has a rounded cutting edge and leaves a surface of shallow linked arcs. Hand planes displaced it during the early modern period, so the marks work as a rough clock.

The Taisho-era work added the upper floor, a projecting entrance porch and verandas, and gave the house the tiled roof it wears now. What makes Iinuma Honke Main House rewarding is that the later work did not erase the earlier one. The face it presents outside belongs to the 1920s; the plan you walk through inside belongs to the 1700s.

What to Look For

The projecting porch on the east front catches the eye first. It belongs to the Taisho extension, and its eaves sit higher and its roof pitch runs shallower than the low single-storey block behind it. Stand at the junction and the seam between the two periods reads as a single line.

The interior now works as Kinoene Omoya, a restaurant serving sake and dishes keyed to the 24 solar terms. The brewery says the conversion kept the old beams and fittings in place and set among them tables made from timber salvaged from brewing work, along with chairs and lampshades by contemporary makers. Look up and the depth of the beams is obvious; sit down and the chain of rooms becomes clear.

Iinuma Honke Main House is also the home successive heads of the family lived in. The brewery's own survey found four campaigns of remodelling and dates the joinery and plane work of the first campaign to techniques older than 350 years. That figure comes from the owner's investigation, and is best treated as such.

Visiting

The way into Iinuma Honke Main House is to eat there. Kinoene Omoya takes reservations and works by booking on some days, so it is worth contacting the restaurant first. The exterior can be seen freely from the grounds, and the east front gives the fullest view of the building.

No photography policy is published. Since the house is a working restaurant, avoid shots that take in other diners, and ask the staff if in doubt. Directions to the estate and opening hours are set out on the Iinuma Honke page.