Nishino Family Residence

A Papermaker's Compound in Echizen

The Nishino Family Residence (西野家住宅, Nishino-ke Jūtaku) is the compound of a family of washi papermakers in Sadatomo-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, whose six buildings, dating from the late Edo period (1830–1868) to the early Showa era, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 28 June 2017. The six are a main house, an annex, a tea house, two long storehouse ranges and a street wall, registered as numbers 18-0177 to 18-0182.

Sadatomo is one of the five villages, known together as Goka, that make up the Echizen washi district, where handmade paper has been produced for well over a thousand years. The Fukui Heritage Council describes the Nishino family as leaders of both the Echizen paper trade and the habutae silk-weaving industry. Their plot covers about 1,700 square metres, roughly 46 metres east to west and 37 metres north to south.

Each of the two registered storehouse ranges strings three storerooms together under connected roofs, so the Nishino Family Residence actually holds six kura: rooms for mosquito nets, miso and paper in one range, and the new, middle and large stores in the other. The paper store, fittingly for a papermaking house, is the largest.

How the Nishino Compound Grew

The buildings of the Nishino Family Residence span about seventy years. The national database gives the following dates.

• Main house: a late Edo (1830–1868) farmhouse moved here from the town of Ikeda in the early Taisho era (1912–1918)
• Mosquito net, miso and paper storehouses: late Edo, extended around 1925
• New, middle and large storehouses: around 1889, extended in the early Showa era
• Tea house: around 1909
• Annex: 1937
• Wall: 1937, extended in the early Showa era

The main house is older than the compound itself: an Edo-period farmhouse dismantled in nearby Ikeda and re-erected here, then enlarged at the back. The large storehouse and the tea house followed in the Meiji era, and the paper store, the new and middle stores, the annex and the wall between the 1920s and the 1940s. The dates track a family adding storage and reception rooms as its paper business grew.

The main house and annex were registered as buildings that serve as models of design; the other four for their contribution to the historic landscape. Echizen City's list dates the new, middle and large storehouses to around 1879; this site follows the national database.

Layout of the Nishino Family Residence

The Nishino Family Residence faces a street on its north side, where the wall marks the boundary. The main house stands gable-end on, with a raised Udatsu firewall on its east gable, and the annex is attached behind it.

The storehouses sit on opposite sides of the plot. The mosquito net, miso and paper range stands in the south-east, facing the main house; the new, middle and large range stands in the north-west and faces east. The tea house occupies the south-west corner. Enclosed by all of these is the inner garden, which the Fukui Heritage Council calls a world apart.

From the street, all you see is the north wall and the roofs rising behind it. Each building has its own page.

Other Nishino Properties Nearby

Two other registered properties in Goka carry the Nishino name and are easily confused with the Nishino Family Residence. The Udatsu Craft Museum at Echizen Washi Village in Shinzaike-cho was registered in 2008 as the former Nishino Family Residence main house and papermaking workshop, a relocated building said to date from 1748. In Sadatomo-cho itself stands the Nishino Hyakusuke Family Residence, registered in 2024. Both are separate registrations.

Visiting the Nishino Family Residence

The Nishino Family Residence is privately owned and is not open to the public on a regular basis. Local groups have organized special openings, including a free guided viewing by a townscape preservation society in October 2020. In September 2019 the owners, through the Fukui Heritage Council, invited proposals from people interested in using the buildings.

The storehouses have long served as a venue for the Imadate Contemporary Paper Art Exhibition, an annual show of works made with paper. As of September 2026 the 38th edition is under way with the Nishino storehouses among its venues. Artists work in public from 19 September to 3 October, when entry to every venue except the Udatsu Craft Museum is free. From 4 to 19 October the finished works are shown; visitors register at the Udatsu Craft Museum for a five-venue ticket (1,000 yen for adults, free for high school students and younger). The venues open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and close on Tuesdays.

Even during these events, this is a family property. No guidance on photography is published, so follow instructions on site, and when looking at the wall from the street, please do not peer into the grounds.

Getting there follows the route to Echizen Washi Village. Fukutetsu buses on the Nanetsu or Ikeda lines take about 30 minutes from Takefu Station on the Hapi-Line Fukui to the Washi no Sato stop. From Echizen-Takefu Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen it is about 10 minutes by taxi, and about 10 minutes by car from the Takefu interchange of the Hokuriku Expressway. On the map, the Nishino Family Residence lies about 400 metres north-east of the Papyrus Hall. No visitor parking at the house is advertised.