Uehara Family Residence (Noda)

About the Uehara Family Residence (Noda)

The Uehara Family Residence (上原家住宅, Uehara-ke Jūtaku) in Kirigasaku, Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, is the estate of a family of former village headmen, and four of its buildings, a shoin reception wing, a storehouse, a stone storehouse and a front gate dating from the mid-Meiji to the early Taishō era, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2019.

Another registered Uehara Family Residence stands in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, so this site calls the Chiba estate Uehara Family Residence (Noda).

Noda City describes the Uehara as the family who served as nanushi, the village headman, of a farming settlement on the flat land between the Tone and Edo rivers during the Edo period. In the Meiji era the house also held the kochō yakuba, the local village office of the time, so the estate was for a while the seat of local government as well as a farmhouse. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it simply as a former headman's house.

Kirigasaku lies in the north of Noda, where rice fields and hamlets spread across the low ground between the two great rivers.

The Four Registered Buildings

The four parts of the Uehara Family Residence were registered on 10 September 2019 under consecutive numbers 12-290 to 12-293. The Shoin and the Storehouse were registered as models of architectural form; the Front Gate and the Stone Storehouse were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives these dates and sizes.

• Shoin: mid-Meiji era, moved and renovated in 1993. Single-storey timber building, 82 m²
• Front Gate: mid-Meiji era, renovated in 2013. Timber gate 2.9 m wide, with a side door
• Storehouse: mid-Meiji era, moved and renovated in 1992. Two-storey clay-walled storehouse, 50 m²
• Stone Storehouse: early Taishō era. Single-storey stone building, 33 m²

The agency's year field puts the mid-Meiji era at 1883 to 1897, which covers three of the four. The Stone Storehouse is a little later, from the early Taishō era (1912 to 1918). All four are roofed with tile.

The Shoin and the Storehouse were moved and renovated in 1993 and 1992 respectively. The database does not say where they stood before, and this could not be confirmed. The main house, to which the Shoin is joined, is not among the registered buildings.

How the Uehara Family Residence Is Laid Out

Read together, the agency's four descriptions give a fair picture of the plan. The Front Gate stands at the middle of the south side, facing south. Along the west side are the Stone Storehouse, towards the north, and the Storehouse, about halfway along; both face east into the grounds. The Shoin sits at the back of the plot, joined to the east face of the main house.

Step through the gate and walk north, and the main house and Shoin lie ahead with the two storehouses on the left. The gate itself is a Yakuimon built entirely of zelkova, which the agency describes as an imposing front well suited to a Meiji village office.

Both storehouses on the west side use Ōya stone, in different ways. In the mid-Meiji Storehouse the stone is limited to a base five courses high, and the walls above are clay. In the early Taishō Stone Storehouse the walls themselves are Ōya stone. The agency sees the Stone Storehouse as a record of a modern fashion in the farmhouse compounds of the old province of Shimōsa.

Each building has its own page with its structure and details.

Visiting the Uehara Family Residence

The Uehara Family Residence is still a family home, and Noda City states that the interiors cannot be visited. Visitors cannot enter the grounds and can see only what shows from the road. No special openings had been announced as of October 2026.

The Front Gate faces south, so the south side is likely the place to look from, but how much can be seen has not been checked on site. Please photograph only from the public road, and do not linger at the gate or peer into the grounds.

By public transport, take the Noda community bus, the Mame Bus, on its Sekiyado Castle Route to the Kirigasaku Maeyama stop; the Uehara Family Residence is about a 3-minute walk from there. From Kawama Station on the Tobu Urban Park Line, take the Mame Bus Sekiyado Nanakōdai Route or Sekiyado Aeon Town Route to Sekiyado Chūō Terminal, then change to the Sekiyado Castle Route towards the Sekiyado Castle Museum. The ride from the terminal to Kirigasaku Maeyama takes about 18 minutes.

Only four buses a day in each direction stop at Kirigasaku Maeyama, on weekdays and at weekends alike, and the service does not run from 31 December to 3 January. Check Noda City's timetable before setting out (checked October 2026 against the timetable revised on 1 October 2024). No visitor parking is mentioned.