Ohashi Family Residence (Sabae)

Ohashi Family Residence (Sabae)

The Ohashi Family Residence (大橋家住宅, Ōhashi-ke Jūtaku) in Ishidakamicho, Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, is the estate of an old family whose late Meiji main house and front gate and storehouse of 1881 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 28, 2011 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The three carry the consecutive registration numbers 18-0106, 18-0107 and 18-0108.

Fukui Prefecture's cultural properties database describes the Ohashi as a long-established family of large-scale farmers, with a big house, a storehouse and the Meiji-era front gate of a clinic on grounds of about 900 tsubo. Sabae City records that the gate was built for the clinic and that the lean-to of the storehouse once sheltered the doctor's rickshaw, and places the buildings in the history of the Ohashi as a family of doctors.

There is another Ohashi Family Residence in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, which belongs to a different family. This page covers the Ohashi Family Residence in Ishidakamicho, Sabae.

The Three Buildings of the Ohashi Family Residence

According to the Agency, the front gate stands at the middle of the east edge of the grounds, facing the street; the main house occupies the centre, and the storehouse stands east of the main house.

The main house is a two-storey timber building of 201 square metres under a gabled roof of pan tiles, with a six-room plan of reception rooms. The storehouse is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse of around 1881, and the gate is an unusual design built on a kabuki-mon frame with wicket doors on both sides (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Sabae City). Each building of the Ohashi Family Residence is described on its own page.

Visiting the Ohashi Family Residence

The Ohashi Family Residence is a private home, and Sabae City states that the interiors of the main house and storehouse are not open to the public. The front gate faces a street within the settlement (Fukui Prefecture), so the estate is seen from the road. Please stay off the grounds and keep visits brief out of consideration for the residents.

Fukui Prefecture's database gives the walk from Shinmei Station on the Fukui Railway Fukubu Line as 25 minutes. No official information was found on photography.