Sakai Family Residence Main House

About the Sakai Family Residence Main House

The Sakai Family Residence Main House (酒井家住宅主屋, Sakai-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is a 2-storey wooden house of the late Meiji era in Rakuma, Maruoka-cho, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture; it was relocated in 1923 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2025.

It is the centrepiece of an estate built by a businessman on the right bank of the Kuzuryū River. The Sakai Family Residence Main House stands near the middle of the plot with its front to the west. With a building area of 297 m², it is the largest of the nine structures registered on the estate.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the house to the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912) and records that it was relocated in 1923. Where it stood before the move is not stated in any published source we could find.

A Model of the Modern Japanese-Style House

The Sakai Family Residence Main House was registered as a model of form. The Agency describes it as a large, high-quality example of the modern Japanese-style house (kindai wafū jūtaku).

It is also the core around which the rest of the estate was assembled: around 1930 a Western-style house, storehouses and gates were added to it, and a guest wing followed around 1951. Reading the estate starts here.

A Gabled Entrance and a Great Upstairs Room

Outside, Sakai's main house is a 2-storey Irimoya-zukuri building entered on the gable side (Tsumairi), roofed in Sangawara-buki pantiles. A projecting entrance porch with its own hip-and-gable roof sits in front, so that anyone approaching from the west sees two stacked gables.

On the ground floor a large hall leads to six rooms laid out east of it in two rows of three, with the kitchen in a wing extending north. Reception rooms and everyday space are kept in orderly lines, as befits a house of this size.

The upper floor holds the room the Agency singles out: a 16.5-mat tatami room whose coffered Gō-tenjō ceiling is not flat but bent partway up, in a broken, mansard-like profile. The angled ceiling gives the room extra height and makes it feel grander, fitting for a room where important guests were received.

Visiting the Sakai Family Residence Main House

The Sakai Family Residence Main House is a private home and its interior is not open to the public (checked October 2026). We found no notice of open days. Because the house stands in the middle of the plot, we could not confirm how much of it can be seen from outside the gates and walls.

If you walk around the estate, stay on the public road and respect the privacy of the household. The history and layout of the whole estate are covered on the Sakai Family Residence (Maruoka) page.