A merchant house on the retainers' street
The Joko Family Residence (上甲家住宅, Jōkō-ke Jūtaku) is a plaster-walled merchant house at Higashi-Koji in the Yoshida district of Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture, put up around 1911 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2002.
Higashi-Koji is where the senior retainers of the Yoshida domain had their houses. In 1901 the Joko family bought one of them, the residence of a chief retainer, and about a decade later they moved down from Tatsuma, further inland, and built the present house on that plot.
They were brewers and sellers of sake and soy sauce. Soy sauce became the main trade during the Taishō era, and the building worked as the family's shop until the Shōwa 30s, the decade beginning in 1955. It has never been a museum. The Joko Family Residence is still lived in, with parts of it in use as an office and business premises, which is why it looks worn in the ordinary way that occupied buildings do.
Why the house is on the national register
The Joko Family Residence was registered in 2002 under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. That is a different test from architectural distinction, and it is worth understanding the difference: what the listing protects here is a street, and the part this building plays in holding it together.
The register records one building of Dozo-zukuri construction, single storey, with a tiled roof and a floor area of 174 square metres. The two main sources disagree slightly on the date. The national register assigns it to the early Taishō era, meaning somewhere between 1912 and 1925, while Uwajima City's own account of the house dates its construction to 1911.
Higashi-Koji still carries more than one registered building. The Asahi Soy Sauce Brewery, a short way along the same street, went onto the register on the same day in 2002. Read together, the two entries describe a lane where brewing families built in a common manner, and the Joko Family Residence is the piece of it that stands closest to the centre of town, immediately beside the Yoshida branch office of Uwajima City Hall.
What to look for from the street
Start with the wall. The front of the Joko Family Residence is Shinkabe, which means the timber posts are left showing on the face with plaster filling the panels between them, instead of being buried under one continuous skin the way a full storehouse wall would be. Above that, lattice windows are set out symmetrically across the upper part of the elevation. Symmetry is not what a working shop front usually gives you, and it is the first thing that separates this house from its neighbours.
The roof is Kirizuma-zukuri, entered on the long side in the Hirairi manner and laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. What sits under it is the real feat: an unusually large Wagoya truss, which is what allows the building to span its width without the roof sagging. The frontage runs 6.5 ken and the depth 7.5 ken, which is a wide plot by the standards of the lane.
The register calls it single storey, though there is a low Tsushi-nikai loft tucked beneath the roof, and it is the loft that gives the upper wall its lattice windows.
The interior is not open, but knowing what is behind the wall changes how the front reads. Beyond the entrance lies an earth-floored Doma of about 20 tsubo, roughly 66 square metres, surviving from the original build, with the loft beams and floorboards still overhead. From the middle of the doma the rooms run away in a line: the middle room, the room holding the Buddhist altar, and then the Zashiki. The joinery of the partitions and the paper-screen light above the Tsukeshoin alcove desk are the work of careful hands.
Visiting
The Joko Family Residence is a private house in daily use. There are no opening hours, no admission charge and no interior visit. What is available to you is the elevation from Higashi-Koji, which is the thing the registration was made for in the first place.
Uwajima City asks visitors to bear in mind that many of its cultural properties are privately owned and stand on private ground. Permission from the owner may be required, groups should obtain consent before arriving, and photography should be cleared with the owner rather than assumed. Enquiries go to the cultural property section of the city's Culture and Sports Division. Stay on the street, and do not step into the plot to get a better angle on the Joko Family Residence.
Getting there is straightforward. From Iyo-Yoshida Station on the JR Yosan Line the house is about 1 km, a walk of roughly 15 minutes into the town centre. The Yoshida branch office of the city hall next door is the landmark to aim for. Morning light falls on the front, which matters if you plan to photograph it from the public road.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Joko Family Residence?
- No. It is a privately owned house still in daily use as a residence, office and business premises, and the interior is not open to visitors. The exterior can be seen from the public street at Higashi-Koji at any time, and there is no admission charge.
- How do you get to the Joko Family Residence?
- From Iyo-Yoshida Station on the JR Yosan Line it is about 1 km, roughly a 15-minute walk into the centre of the Yoshida district of Uwajima City. The house stands next to the Yoshida branch office of Uwajima City Hall, which is the simplest landmark to navigate by.
- When was the Joko Family Residence built, and what was it used for?
- Uwajima City dates the building to 1911, while the national register assigns it to the early Taishō era, between 1912 and 1925. The Joko family brewed and sold sake and soy sauce, with soy sauce becoming the principal trade, and the house served as their shop until the Shōwa 30s, the decade beginning in 1955.
- Why is the Joko Family Residence a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- It was registered in 2002 under the criterion for buildings contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The register describes a single dozo-zukuri building of one storey with a tiled roof and a floor area of 174 square metres, and values its part in the streetscape of Higashi-Koji.
- Can you photograph the Joko Family Residence?
- Uwajima City asks that photography of privately owned cultural properties be cleared with the owner. Photographing the front from the public street is the ordinary practice, but do not enter the grounds, and be considerate of the household living there.
Basic Information
| Name | Joko Family Residence |
|---|---|
| Location | 71-1 Higashikoji Ko, Yoshida-cho, Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2002 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Dozo-zukuri, single storey, tiled roof, building area 174 square metres |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing from the public street only; a private residence in use, with no interior access |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: Joko Family Residence
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002698
- Uwajima City: Nationally Registered Joko Family Residence
- https://www.city.uwajima.ehime.jp/site/sizen-bunka/13joukou.html
- Uwajima City: Notes for Visiting Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.uwajima.ehime.jp/soshiki/33/bunka-visit.html
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: Asahi Soy Sauce Brewery
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002699
Last verified: 2026.09.05