Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa)

What Is the Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa)?

The Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa) (加藤家住宅, Katō-ke Jūtaku) is the home of a salt wholesaler on the old Gyotoku Kaido road in Hongyotoku, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, whose late Meiji period main house and brick wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 28 April 2010. Ichikawa City describes the pair as the first registered cultural properties in the Gyotoku district.

"Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa)" is the label this site uses to tell it apart from properties of the same name; the registered names are Kato Family Residence Main House and Kato Family Residence Brick Wall. Mobara and Futtsu, also in Chiba Prefecture, have registered properties called Kato Family Residence too, but they are separate homes in separate places.

A Merchant House in a Salt Town

Gyotoku grew rich from about the mid-Edo period into modern times on salt making and river transport, and it is also a town of many temples and shrines. Both the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education and Ichikawa City describe the Kato family as leading salt merchants. The two registered structures of the Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa) show the street front that family put together at the end of the Meiji era.

The main house is a refined timber house in the modern Japanese style, fitted with choice woods and patterned glass doors; the wall is built of brick laid in Flemish bond. A Japanese-style house and a Western-style brick wall going up side by side at the same time says something about how a prosperous wholesaler lived in the late Meiji years.

Two Registrations and How They Sit

The main house and brick wall of the Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa) were entered in the 67th round of registrations under the consecutive numbers 12-0147 and 12-0148. Registration took effect on 28 April 2010 and was announced in the official gazette on 20 May the same year; both were recognized for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database summarizes them as follows.

• Main House: late Meiji period, single-storey timber building, pantiled roof, building area 123 square meters (1 building)
• Brick Wall: late Meiji period, brick, total length 34 meters (1 structure)

The main house faces east onto the old Gyotoku Kaido. The brick wall runs from the northern part of the east side of the lot and turns a right angle along the boundary with the neighboring plot, with a gate partway along. From the road, the front of the house and the brick wall appear next to each other.

Visiting and Getting to the Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa)

The Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa) is a private home, and neither Ichikawa City nor Chiba Prefecture lists any public opening (checked September 2026). What you can see is the street side: the front of the main house and the outer face of the brick wall, from the old Gyotoku Kaido. The property itself is off limits. If you stop for photographs, keep out of the way of passing traffic.

The nearest stations are Myoden and Gyotoku on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. From either one it is about a 15-minute walk to the Ichikawa City Gyotoku Fureai Denshokan, a small local history center in the former Asako portable-shrine workshop in Hongyotoku, and the Kato Family Residence (Ichikawa) is about 100 meters northeast of it in a straight line. The Gyotoku Yonchome stop of the Keisei Bus Chiba West services is right in front of the center.