Former Uchiyama Family Residence (Ono)

About the Former Uchiyama Family Residence (Ono)

The Former Uchiyama Family Residence (旧内山家住宅, Kyū-Uchiyama-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of the Uchiyama family, senior retainers of the Ono domain, at 10-7 Shiromachi, Ono City, Fukui Prefecture, where six structures led by a main house built around 1882 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2018.

Ono City owns the Former Uchiyama Family Residence and opens it to the public as the Buke Yashiki Kyu-Uchiyama-ke, the "samurai residence of the former Uchiyama family". The Agency for Cultural Affairs places it in what was the samurai quarter below Ono Castle. None of the buildings is older than the Meiji era, yet the layout of the estate and the formality of the main house carry on the conventions of an Edo-period samurai home.

Another registered property in Toyama City shares the same Japanese name, so this site adds the place name: Former Uchiyama Family Residence (Ono).

Two Brothers Who Rescued the Ono Domain

In 1842 the lord of Ono, Doi Toshitada, issued a reform decree known as the Kōshi no Rei to pull the domain out of debt. According to Ono City, the men who carried the reforms through were two brothers of the Uchiyama family: Uchiyama Shichirōemon Ryōkyū and his younger brother Ryūsuke Yoshitaka.

Ryōkyū opened Ōnoya, a chain of shops run by the domain, and managed its copper mines, and between them these ventures put the domain's finances back on their feet. He became a karō, or chief retainer, in 1860, went on helping former samurai families after the domains were abolished, and died in 1881 at the age of 75.

Ryūsuke pushed for settlement in Ezo (today's Hokkaido), had a Western-style sailing ship, the Ōno Maru, built, promoted Dutch learning and modernised the domain's forces. Offered the posts of chief retainer and military commander in 1863, he declined the first. He died of illness the following year, 1864, aged 52.

The Former Uchiyama Family Residence was preserved in their memory: Ono City dismantled and rebuilt the house of the later Uchiyama family. The main house went up around the year after Ryōkyū's death, so this is not the home the brothers themselves lived in.

The Six Registered Structures

The six structures of the Former Uchiyama Family Residence were registered together on May 10, 2018, under the consecutive numbers 18-187 to 18-192. The Agency's database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main house: around 1882. Wooden, 2 storeys, building area 180 m²
• Annex: late Taishō era (1919 to 1926). Wooden, single storey, building area 121 m²
• Gate: around 1882. Wooden, 2.9 m wide
• Miso storehouse: around 1882. Earthen-walled, 2 storeys, building area 24 m²
• Clothing storehouse: around 1882. Earthen-walled, 2 storeys, building area 53 m²
• Rice storehouse: around 1882. Earthen-walled, single storey, building area 30 m²

The main house, the annex and the clothing storehouse were registered as models of form, and the gate, the miso storehouse and the rice storehouse for their contribution to the historic landscape. Every one of them has a tiled roof.

The database records the rebuilding as work on the main house and annex in 1992 and on the gate and three storehouses in 1993. Ono City notes that this repair revealed the main house had originally been roofed with wooden boards.

How the Former Uchiyama Family Residence Is Laid Out

The main house of the Former Uchiyama Family Residence stands in the middle of the plot, facing south. The annex lies to its southeast, joined to it by a covered corridor, and opens broadly onto the garden.

Along the western side of the plot are the gate and, immediately south of it, the miso storehouse. The clothing storehouse stands southeast of the miso storehouse, and the rice storehouse occupies the southwest corner, with the clothing storehouse against its north side. Placing a storehouse on the street corner and lining the front with the gate and storehouses is how the estate presents itself to the road.

Ono City singles out the angled braces that hold up the eaves of the clothing and rice storehouses as a local way of building. In a town that gets heavy snow, deep eaves keep weather off the earthen walls. Each building's structure and details are covered on its own page.

Visiting the Former Uchiyama Family Residence

The Former Uchiyama Family Residence is open as Ono City's Buke Yashiki Kyu-Uchiyama-ke, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., or until 5:00 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays. It is closed on Tuesdays (the following day when Tuesday is a holiday), from December 27 to January 4, and during maintenance periods.

Admission is 400 yen for adults and free for junior high school students and younger. Visitors with disabilities and groups of 30 or more pay 200 yen, and an annual pass valid for 1 year from purchase costs 1,300 yen (checked September 2026).

On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays in April, May, September and October, matcha is served from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. with a view of the garden, at 500 yen a serving on top of admission. The Fukui Prefectural Tourist Association notes that the sliding screens are changed with the seasons: light summer shoji from spring to autumn, and colourfully painted ones in winter.

No official guidance on photography could be found (checked September 2026), so ask at the reception before taking pictures indoors.

The Former Uchiyama Family Residence is about a 15-minute walk from Echizen-Ōno Station on the JR Etsumi-Hoku Line. By car it is about 10 minutes from Ōno Interchange on the Chūbu Jūkan Expressway, and there is parking for 19 cars. Enquiries: 0779-65-6122.