Mogi Shichiroemon Family Residence

A Soy Sauce Brewer's Compound and Its Household Shrine

The Mogi Shichiroemon Family Residence (茂木七郎右衛門家住宅, Mogi Shichirōemon-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a soy sauce brewing family in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, where 18 structures built between the late Edo period and 1920 were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 27 March 2018. Houses, storehouses, gates and walls stand on one site together with the buildings of Kotohira Shrine, the family's own shrine.

The Mogi Shichiroemon line brewed soy sauce under the shop name Kashiwaya from 1772. When the Noda Soy Sauce Brewers' Association was formed in 1887, the fifth-generation Mogi Shichiroemon became its head. In 1917 the brewing families of Noda merged their businesses into the Noda Shoyu Company, and the sixth-generation Mogi Shichiroemon became its president. That company is the direct forerunner of today's Kikkoman Corporation.

Kotohira Shrine occupies the plot immediately east of the house. According to Chiba Prefecture, the second-generation head brought a branch of the deity from Kotohira-gū (Konpira) in Sanuki, on the island of Shikoku, in 1789. It began as a household shrine, and from the Meiji era onward local people came to worship there too.

What the 18 Registrations Cover

The registrations carry consecutive numbers, 12-253 through 12-270. Chiba Prefecture counts them as 17 buildings and one structure, the odd one out being the brick wall. Grouped by use, they break down like this.

• Living quarters: the main house, the shoin reception wing and the Shin-zashiki (new reception rooms)
• Storehouses: the Hongura, Shingura, Mukōgura, Okubunko and grain storehouses
• Gates: the main gate and the inner gate
• Walls: the brick wall, the earthen walls north and east of the shoin, and the board fence south of it
• Kotohira Shrine: main hall, kagura hall, plaque hall (ema hall), chōzuya water pavilion and the shrine storehouse

The dates spread widely. The oldest buildings are the Hongura and the Okubunko storehouse, both assigned to the late Edo period. The shrine's main hall and water pavilion date from 1872, the main house from the middle of the Meiji era, and the shoin from 1905. The kagura hall, finished in 1920, is the youngest. What survives is a house that grew by addition over several generations.

Two registration criteria were applied. The main house and the shoin qualified as buildings that serve as a model of architectural form. The remaining 16 were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, the two principal living buildings were judged on their own design, while the storehouses, walls and shrine buildings were valued as parts of the whole scene.

Reading the Layout: A House Built Against Fire and Theft

The main house sits toward the northwest of the lot and faces south. An inner gate opens southeast of its entrance, and board fences running off either side close off the front garden. A covered corridor leaves the east end of the main house's north side and leads to the shoin, which is guarded on the north and east by tall earthen walls and on the south by a garden fence. Behind the main house stand the Hongura and Shingura side by side, and the Okubunko storehouse stands behind the Shin-zashiki, a wing described as built in the Kansai manner. The brick wall links the Shingura and the Okubunko in an L and then runs east along the northern edge of the property.

Follow that layout and a single preoccupation keeps surfacing: fire and theft. The brick wall and the earthen walls by the shoin both rise more than 4 metres. The Hongura has gravel packed inside its walls. The back of the Shin-zashiki was given thick plastered walls and iron sheeting. A fortune made in soy sauce, and the account books that recorded it, shaped the way this family built its home.

On the shrine side, the main hall faces south. The water pavilion stands to its southeast, the plaque hall between the main hall and the kagura hall, and the shrine storehouse, which holds festival equipment, to the west. Only the grain storehouse sits outside the residential enclosure, next to the approach to the shrine. Chiba Prefecture attributes the main hall, kagura hall, plaque hall and water pavilion to carpenters of the Tatekawa school, Satō Shōsuke Norihisa and Satoji Noritake.

Visiting and Getting There

The Mogi Shichiroemon Family Residence is still a private home. Noda City states plainly that visitors cannot enter the grounds or see inside any of the buildings. Of the residential structures, only those on the perimeter, such as walls and gates, can be seen from outside. Please treat it as the private house it is and avoid photographing through gates or gaps in the fences.

The exception is Kotohira Shrine, whose gate opens for public worship on the 10th of every month. On that day you can see the exteriors of the main hall, kagura hall, plaque hall, water pavilion and the shrine storehouse west of the main hall, and you pass the grain storehouse on the way in. Noda City's information does not give opening hours or say whether photography is allowed in the precinct, so follow any notices posted on the day.

The nearest bus stop is Kikkōman-mae, served by routes 9 (Atago), 11 (Southern Loop) and 12 (New South) of Noda's Mame Bus community service and by Ibaraki Kyūkō buses. The walk from the stop takes about 2 minutes. Ibaraki Kyūkō runs a route to and from Nodashi Station on the Tōbu Urban Park Line. Enquiries go to the Lifelong Learning Division of Noda City (04-7123-1366).