Suzuki Family Residence (Kanaya, Futtsu)

A Stone Merchant's House at the Foot of Mount Nokogiri

The Suzuki Family Residence in Kanaya, Futtsu (鈴木家住宅, Suzuki-ke Jūtaku) is the home of a family of stone merchants in Kanaya, Futtsu City, Chiba Prefecture, where five structures, from a stone storehouse of 1902 to a main house of 1953, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on January 15, 2010. They are the Main House, the Stone Storehouse, an Inari shrine, a well and a stone wall.

Kanaya lies at the foot of Mount Nokogiri, where a volcanic tuff known as Bōshū stone was once quarried in great quantity. According to the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education, the Suzuki family ran a stone business centered on cutting that stone. Good Bōshū stone turns up all over the property, and the finest of it went into the Stone Storehouse.

Today the property is part of the Nokogiriyama Museum of Art. The museum opened on March 15, 2010, as the Kanaya Museum of Art, a product of a local revival campaign built around the idea of Kanaya as a town of stone and art, and took its current name in 2019. The Stone Storehouse serves as the museum's annex and since 2020 has housed the Nokogiriyama Archives, a small display on the mountain's history.

How the Property Is Laid Out

The house faces south onto the old main street of Kanaya village. Along that street runs a stone wall, 30 metres long east of the gate and 25 metres long west of it. Behind it, in the middle of the plot, stands the Main House, facing south. The Stone Storehouse is northwest of the house, the well is just north of the storehouse, and a small stone Inari shrine sits beside the garden pond northeast of the house.

Four of the five registered structures are stone, and even the timber Main House uses Bōshū stone for its foundations and bathroom. Built between the Meiji and Shōwa eras, they show a stone-trade family using its own local material for more than half a century.

• Main House: 1953, timber, single storey, 147 square metres
• Stone Storehouse: 1902, Bōshū stone, 2 storeys, 49 square metres
• Inari Shrine: 1953, stone, 0.7 square metres
• Well: early Shōwa era, stone, 8.2 metres deep
• Stone Wall: early Taishō era, cut Bōshū stone, 55 metres long

Getting There and What You Can See

The Nokogiriyama Museum of Art is a 5-minute walk from Hama-Kanaya Station on the JR Uchibō Line and a 3-minute walk from Kanaya Port, where the Tokyo Bay Ferry arrives from Kurihama. By car it is about 3 minutes from the Futtsu-Kanaya interchange on the Tateyama Expressway, on National Route 127. Parking beside the museum holds about 20 cars and 3 buses.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last admission 4:30 p.m.) and closes on Tuesdays (the following day when Tuesday is a public holiday), between exhibitions and over the New Year holidays. Admission is 800 yen for adults, 500 yen for junior high and high school students and free for younger children. The annex in the Stone Storehouse costs 300 yen for adults and 150 yen for students, or 1000 yen and 550 yen for both buildings together. Tickets are sold at the museum desk (checked September 25, 2026).

Only the Stone Storehouse is advertised as open; the museum says nothing about access to the Main House, shrine or well. The stone wall faces the old main street and can be seen from the road. Viewing conditions for each structure are covered on its own page.