A Complete Farmstead on the Plateau South of Lake Teganuma
The Ito Family Residence (伊藤家住宅, Itō-ke Jūtaku) is a farmstead in Masuo 4-chome, Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, where six buildings, led by a late Edo-period main house and completed by outbuildings added between the early Meiji and early Showa eras, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 2, 2018.
The estate sits on the plateau that rises south of Lake Teganuma. The six registered structures are the main house, a two-storey guest annex, a retirement house, a storehouse, a cowshed and a small well house. Their registration numbers run in an unbroken sequence, 12-0272 through 12-0277, and all six were listed under the same criterion: buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country.
What the registration rewards here is completeness. Kashiwa City describes the Ito Family Residence as the main house, five outbuildings and the woodland that wraps around them, and credits the whole ensemble with preserving the traditional layout of a farmstead in northwest Chiba. Each building had its own job. People slept, cooked and entertained in three of them, tools went into the storehouse, cattle lived in the cowshed and water came from the well.
Three Eras in Six Buildings
The buildings fall into three generations. The oldest is the main house, which the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates to the late Edo period, somewhere between 1751 and 1830. Kashiwa City, reading the sills and beams, places it in the middle to late 18th century.
The second generation belongs to the early Meiji era, between 1868 and 1882: the retirement house, the cowshed and the well house. The cowshed is dated from a quick military survey map drawn in the late 19th century, and the retirement house by its structural likeness to the cowshed. So the thatched outbuildings that ring the main house seem to have been in place by then.
The third generation arrived in the early Showa era, between 1926 and 1945. The tiled, two-storey annex and storehouse went up in these years, and both the main house and the retirement house were remodelled. The mix of thatch and tile you see today had taken shape by the time these works were complete.
How the Estate Is Laid Out
The main house of the Ito Family Residence faces east. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places it at the centre of the property and calls it the core of the layout, while Kashiwa City describes it as standing in the northwest of the site; the two descriptions do not quite agree. Every other building, though, is described by its position relative to the main house.
In front of the main house, the retirement house and storehouse stand on the south side, and the cowshed and well house on the north. The retirement house lies southeast of the main house and faces west, with the storehouse just to its west. The cowshed lies northeast of the main house, also facing west, and the well house stands directly to its south.
Only the annex tucks in behind. It rises off the rear of the main house's south side and is joined to it by a covered passage. According to the city, a garden with a pond lies in front of the annex and a household shrine stands behind it.
The Woodland and the Koya Castle Site
The woodland around the Ito Family Residence doubles as a medieval fortified site. Kashiwa City notes that it is now public land, looked after by a local volunteer group.
It appears to correspond to the Koya castle-residence site (幸谷城館跡) that the city presents as Kitsuneyama History Park, also in Masuo 4-chome. The city believes the stronghold was built around the late 15th century and used well into the 16th, and describes a square main enclosure about 100 metres by 60 metres, ringed by earthen ramparts and moats. The site of Masuo Castle lies about 600 metres to the north across a valley.
Next to the park is the site of the studio where the painter Takashima Yajuro (1890 to 1975) spent his final years; the studio itself is gone. Warring States earthworks, an Edo-period thatched farmhouse and a 20th-century painter's retreat all share the same stand of trees.
Visiting and Getting There
The Ito Family Residence is a private home, and the owners still live there. None of the six buildings is open inside, and visitors cannot enter the property. Kashiwa City states plainly that the family lives on site and asks visitors to be considerate. Look from public roads and other places you are allowed to stand, keep your voice down, and do not point cameras at the family's living spaces.
The nearest station is Masuo on the Tobu Urban Park Line. The city gives the walk from the east exit to the adjacent Kitsuneyama History Park as about 1.1 kilometres. The park has no car park, so drivers will need to find paid parking nearby.
For questions about the property as a cultural asset, contact the Culture Division of Kashiwa City's Lifelong Learning Department (04-7191-7414).
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012498
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Annex
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012499
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Retirement House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012500
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012501
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Cowshed
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012502
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Properties Database: Ito Family Residence Well House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00012503
- Kashiwa City: Ito Family Residence (Buildings)
- https://www.city.kashiwa.lg.jp/bunka/about_kashiwa/culture/rekishi/shiteibunkazai/torokuyukei/itoke.html
- Kashiwa City: Kitsuneyama History Park
- https://www.city.kashiwa.lg.jp/bunka/kitsuneyama.html
Last verified: 2026.09.25
