Ito Family Residence Annex

A Showa-Era Guest Wing Off a Thatched Farmhouse

The Ito Family Residence Annex (伊藤家住宅離れ, Itō-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is an early Showa-era guest wing on the Ito family estate in Masuo 4-chome, Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2018. It is a 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 32 square metres, set behind the south side of the main house and linked to it by a covered passage.

The roof is a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri form laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. Both floors rise to the same footprint, and the walls are clad in overlapping horizontal boards, the Shitami-itabari finish. Walk the passage from the thatched late Edo main house and you arrive in a building of tile and weatherboard: materials and centuries change within a few steps.

The plan is simple. Each floor holds a single Zashiki room. On the ground floor, large bay windows project on the south and west sides, and the north wall carries the alcove fittings of a formal reception room. This was never family living space; it was built for guests.

Dating and Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Ito Family Residence Annex to the early Showa era, between 1926 and 1945. Kashiwa City notes that no building records survive, but it is said to date from the first years of Showa.

It was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The agency highlights modern touches throughout and calls it a well-appointed space for receiving guests. A detached two-storey reception wing opening onto a garden through big bay windows is not something the thatched farmhouse had.

The storehouse was built in the same early Showa years, and the main house and retirement house were remodelled then too. The Ito Family Residence Annex is one of several signs that the whole estate was reworked in that period.

What to Look For

The ground-floor bay windows are the defining feature of the Ito Family Residence Annex. Pushed out on two sides, they turn the room toward the outdoors. According to Kashiwa City, a garden with a pond lies in front of the annex, so the windows look straight onto it.

A household shrine is said to stand behind the annex. Pond garden in front, shrine behind: the guest wing sits between the two.

Next to the great thatched roof of the main house, the annex's tiled roof is modest in size, but its second storey gives it a height that stands out among the low farm buildings.

Visiting

The Ito Family Residence Annex stands inside a private estate where the owners live, and it is not open to the public. Because it sits behind the main house, little of it is likely to be visible from outside, and the property cannot be entered. Please do not try to look over walls or hedges.

Directions and visiting etiquette for the estate as a whole are on the Ito Family Residence page.