Former Negishi Family Residence Main House

The Main House

The Former Negishi Family Residence Main House (旧根岸家住宅主屋) is a 2-storey timber house of the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882) in Iwamoto-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 26, 2011 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It was altered in 1918.

The Agency records a 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 229 square metres, 16 metres wide by 18 metres deep; registration number 18-0087.

The main house is the core of the compound and stands in the middle of the plot, facing west (Agency for Cultural Affairs), so that its gable end greets anyone coming through the front gate.

How the House Is Built

The roof is a gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) laid with pantiles, and the entrance is on the gable end (Tsumairi). Inside, an earth-floored Doma takes up the front, raised-floor rooms run back from it, and the deepest room holds a Tokonoma alcove and the family Buddhist altar (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The further in you go, the more formal the space becomes.

Big Udatsu walls rise at both the front and the back. An udatsu is a part of the gable wall carried up above the roofline and capped with its own small roof (Fukui Prefecture); the Negishi main house has one at each end.

Why It Was Registered

The main house was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of form. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to the large udatsu at front and back and describes it as a dwelling with marked regional character.

A Fukui Prefecture survey of traditional houses notes that between Sadatomo and Ōtaki in the Imadate district, gable-entry houses raise udatsu at both ends, and that many of them are large. At 16 metres wide and 18 metres deep, the Former Negishi Family Residence Main House shows the type at full scale.

What to Look For

The face to study is the gable front turned toward the street, where udatsu stand up on either side of the big roof. Seen past the front gate, it gives a clear sense of the width and height of the house. How much of the rear udatsu can be seen from the street has not been confirmed.

Built in the early Meiji period, the house was altered in 1918; the Agency record does not say what the work involved.

Visiting

No official information was found on opening the interior of the Former Negishi Family Residence Main House. The exterior can be seen from the street through the front gate; please stay off the grounds and take photographs from the street.