Yuasa Family Residence

What is the Yuasa Family Residence?

The Yuasa Family Residence (湯浅家住宅, Yuasa-ke Jūtaku) is an old family compound on the eastern side of central Takahama, in Miyazaki, Takahama-cho, Oi District, Fukui Prefecture, where a main house built in 1892 and three other buildings were listed together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Registered Tangible Cultural Property) on March 13, 2025. The four buildings carry the consecutive registration numbers 18-0257 to 18-0260.

They span the late Edo period to the early Showa era. The oldest is the rice storehouse of 1855, followed by the treasure storehouse of 1881 and the main house of 1892, while the new reception wing, the youngest, went up in 1933. The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the registration on November 22, 2024.

A farming family on the east side of town

According to Fukui Prefecture's cultural property database, the Yuasa family lived on the eastern edge of Takahama and farmed the land for generations. In the modern era they became known as progressive farmers, backing land consolidation projects and local development, and members of the family served as mayor of Takahama and in the Fukui Prefectural Assembly.

Each of the four buildings of the Yuasa Family Residence still has its Munafuda, the ridge tag fixed in the roof at the time of construction, and these record when it was built and by which carpenters. The prefecture singles this out as valuable. With a firm date for every building, you can follow the order in which the compound grew over roughly 80 years, between 1855 and 1933.

How the four buildings of the Yuasa Family Residence are arranged

The main house of the Yuasa Family Residence faces east onto the street. The new reception wing joins it at the northwest corner, the treasure storehouse stands west of the wing, and the rice storehouse continues the line further west. Based on the Agency for Cultural Affairs' notes, the four buildings are:

• The main house, built in 1892: a large Machiya townhouse of 178 square meters with a low Tsushi-nikai upper floor, a gabled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) and its entrance on the long side (Hirairi). It was renovated in 1982 and 1994.
• The new reception wing, a single-story building with a hip-and-gable roof (Irimoya-zukuri) added northwest of the main house in 1933 and extended between 1935 and 1944. It holds a reception room with a largely Western design and three linked tatami rooms.
• The treasure storehouse, a 2-story storehouse for household goods built in 1881 and moved in 1933.
• The rice storehouse, a 2-story clay-walled storehouse built in 1855, the oldest building on the site. It was moved to its present spot in 1933 by Hikiya, shifting the whole structure without taking it apart.

Read together, the agency's dates make 1933 the year the new wing was built and both storehouses were moved. The present row of three buildings along the northwest of the site, wing, treasure storehouse and rice storehouse, would therefore be the result of a single building campaign that year.

The main house and the two storehouses were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape of the country, and the new reception wing as a model of design. Fukui Prefecture values the fact that a main house, a reception wing and two storehouses survive together and keep the character of an old local family's home.

Visiting the Yuasa Family Residence

The Yuasa Family Residence is a privately owned home, and no public opening has been announced. Fukui Prefecture's database leaves its public access field blank. Treat the buildings as closed to visitors and do not enter the grounds.

The east front of the main house faces the street, so its plastered walls, the bracketed eaves (Degeta-zukuri) and the short fire walls at either end can be seen from the public road. The new reception wing and the two storehouses stand behind the main house in the northwest of the compound, and how much of them is visible from the street has not been confirmed. The owners give no guidance on photography, so keep pictures to the exterior from the road and be considerate of the people who live here.

The nearest station is Wakasa-Takahama Station on the JR Obama Line. The Yuasa Family Residence lies northeast of the station, about 700 meters away in a straight line, or roughly a 10-minute walk. No visitor parking is advertised.