Ito Family Residence Main House

A Thatched Farmhouse Built Around an 18-Mat Hall

The Ito Family Residence Main House (伊藤家住宅主屋, Itō-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a late Edo-period farmhouse in Masuo 4-chome, Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2018. It is a single-storey timber building under a hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof of Kayabuki thatch, with a building area of 169 square metres, the oldest and largest of the six registered structures on the estate.

The house faces east. On all four sides the eaves are carried out in the Degeta-zukuri manner: brackets project from the wall to hold a beam well beyond the posts, so the roof overhangs deeply. At the south end of the front sits the entrance, and over it alone the thatch is brought down lower, a single step in an otherwise even sweep of roof.

Inside, the north end is a Doma, the beaten-earth work floor. Along the front of it lies a hall of 18 tatami mats; three more rooms line up to the south, with the formal Zashiki at the back. The layout splits the house the way many Kanto farmhouses did: work and everyday life around the earthen floor and big hall, guests and ceremony in the quiet rooms at the far end.

Dating and Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Ito Family Residence Main House to the late Edo period, giving a range of 1751 to 1830. Kashiwa City, reading the sills and beams, places it in the middle to late 18th century. The house was remodelled in the early Showa era, so not everything you see is original.

It was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The agency's description calls it the core of a traditional farmstead layout. Every outbuilding on the estate, from the retirement house to the well house, is located by its direction from this house.

One discrepancy is worth knowing. The agency places the house at the centre of the property; the city's description puts it in the northwest of the site. A site plan would be needed to settle which description is closer.

Age is only part of the story. The main house still anchors five outbuildings and a stand of woodland, and it is still lived in; that continuing role is what the registration recognises.

What to Look For

Start with the eaves. Degeta-zukuri lets a builder push the roof edge far past the wall and gives the facade a finished line. Here it is used on all four sides, not only the front; the builders spent the same effort on the sides and rear as on the face the visitor sees first.

Then look at the entrance at the south end of the front. The only break in the big hipped roof is where it drops over the doorway. The entrance sits at the south end because the rooms behind are arranged with the earthen floor to the north and the formal rooms to the south.

Thatch changes with the weather. After rain it darkens; on a dry winter day it turns pale and straw-coloured.

Visiting

The Ito Family Residence Main House is still the owners' home and is not open to the public. You cannot see the 18-mat hall or the formal rooms, and the property itself is off limits. Any view of the exterior has to be from places where you are allowed to stand, and cameras should stay off the family's living spaces.

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