Kondo Family Residence Main House

A Farmhouse Rebuilt in 1908

The Kondo Family Residence Main House (近藤家住宅主屋) is the main house of a farmstead of 1908 in Shimoshizu Shinden, Yotsukaido City, Chiba Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber house with a tiled roof and a building area of 159 square metres; registration number 12-0059.

A Farmhouse Built Anew

The Kondo Family Residence Main House stands a little west of centre on its plot, its ridge running north to south and its front turned east toward the road (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It has a hipped roof of interlocking pantiles, with lean-to roofs wrapping the east and south sides.

On the east front, just south of centre, a gabled entrance porch projects forward. Its roof swells gently upward, a softer line than the broad hipped roof behind it (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency presents the Kondo main house as an example of the farmhouses rebuilt when army training grounds were enlarged late in the Meiji era: the household moved to the southern edge of this shinden settlement and built afresh. The storehouse and gate date from the same moment, about 1907.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the main house for its contribution to the historic landscape. Its value lies partly in what it records: a farming household uprooted by the expansion of military land and rehoused in a new, carefully built farmhouse.

What to Look For

Look for the contrast between the big hipped roof and the gently curving gable over the projecting entrance, and for the lean-to roofs on the east and south sides that keep the single-storey house low and settled (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The main house stands behind the nagayamon gate, to its west, and is a private home. No official information on interior access was found; please do not enter the grounds.