A Taisho House on the Rise Above Shinmachi
The Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House (旧林田春次郎家住宅本屋, also written Hayashida Harujirō, Honya) is a wooden dwelling built in 1914 at Shinmachi in Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 January 2011 as registration number 40-0067.
The plot occupies raised ground near the middle of the old town, and the house sits at the centre of it, facing east. Two forms are joined. The larger is a two-storey block whose ridge runs east to west, roofed in the hip-and-gable manner and entered from the gable end, with pantiles laid over it. Against its north face stands a single-storey wing under its own hip-and-gable roof. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a building area of 210 square metres.
Inside the single-storey portion the plan follows an old rural convention: six rooms arranged in two ranks, one behind the other. The north room of the front rank carries an alcove, or toko. Local accounts describe the house as built in the manner of a village headman's residence, which is what its wide entrance and deep eaves suggest.
Harujiro Hayashida, who built it, spent his career in local office. He led the village and then the town of Ita, sat in the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly and rose to its speakership, and in 1943, when Ita merged with the neighbouring town of Gotoji to form Tagawa City, he became the city's first mayor. He held that post until 1946.
Registered for the Streetscape It Helps Make
Japan's registration system, introduced in 1996, lists buildings under one of three headings. The main house qualified under the first of them: property contributing to the historic landscape of the country. That wording matters, because the guest house standing on the same plot was registered on the same day under a different heading, as a model of design. One building was valued for what it does to the view; the other for what it does inside.
Seen from the lane, the reason for the first judgement is plain enough. The roofs do not line up. The two-storey block presents its gable to the street while the northern wing runs across behind it at a lower level, so the silhouette steps and turns rather than resolving into a single mass. In a district where most of the surrounding fabric has been replaced since the coal years, a composition of that age reading clearly against the sky counts for a great deal.
Both buildings came through the sixty-ninth round of registrations. Until 12 February 2019 they appeared in the register under commercial names, as the main and new wings of Ryotei Awogiri; the entries were then amended to the Hayashida family name they carry now.
One point deserves a note. The national register dates the main house to 1914, with refurbishment in the later Showa period, between 1966 and 1989. A municipal film-location page has described the building as late Edo work of roughly 150 years' standing, and the restaurant's own pages place it in the early Taisho era. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry is the authoritative record, and 1914 falls within early Taisho, so the two closer accounts agree; the Edo attribution appears to be a loose retelling of the headman's-house description rather than a dating claim.
Seeing It From the Inside
The house is not a museum. It has operated for decades as Ryotei Aogiri, a restaurant serving Chikuho kaiseki, the elaborate banquet cuisine that grew up in the coalfield towns to feed visiting dignitaries. Booking is required, and there is no separate admission for people who only want to look. Dining is the way in.
Recent hours have run from 11:00 to 14:00 and again from 17:00 to 22:00, with Mondays closed, and a seasonal Chikuho kaiseki course has started around 7,260 yen. Times and prices shift, so confirm when you reserve. Photography inside is best cleared with the staff, since other guests are usually in the rooms.
What arrives first is the entrance hall, which is far larger than the exterior prepares you for. A waiting room off it holds chairs the house dates to about 111 years ago. Beyond, a corridor of polished zelkova runs along the garden side; the inner garden it looks onto was laid out after a temple garden in Nara. These are the details that a 2025 Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting feature picked out, and they belong to the main house rather than to the copper-roofed building behind it.
Getting there is straightforward. JR Tagawa-Ita Station on the Hitahikosan Line is about ten minutes on foot, and the Nishitetsu bus stop Sekitan Kinen Koen-guchi is roughly two minutes away. The Tagawa City Coal Mining Historical Museum sits in the same neighbourhood, with the Ita pithead frame and the pair of brick chimneys of the former Mitsui Tagawa colliery, both registered properties in their own right, standing in the park beside it. The museum holds the Yamamoto Sakubei collection of colliery paintings and records, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2011.
One practical wrinkle: the cultural property register gives the address as 3330-1 Shinmachi and others, which is a land-parcel number, while the restaurant lists 11-4 Shinmachi. Both point to the same walled compound.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House?
- Yes, but as a diner. The building houses Ryotei Aogiri, a reservation-only Japanese restaurant, and there is no admission ticket for viewing alone. Reserving a lunch or dinner course is the way to see the entrance hall, the zelkova corridor and the inner garden.
- When was the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House built, and when was it registered?
- It was built in 1914, the third year of the Taisho era, and refurbished at some point between 1966 and 1989. Registration as a national Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 26 January 2011, under number 40-0067.
- How does the Main House differ from the Guest House at the same address?
- They are separate registrations. The main house of 1914 is tile-roofed, largely single-storey with a two-storey block, and was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The guest house of 1934 is a two-storey building under a copper roof, listed as a model of design, and is known locally as the Akagane Goten, the copper palace.
- How do I reach the Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House?
- Walk about ten minutes from JR Tagawa-Ita Station on the Hitahikosan Line, or take a Nishitetsu bus to Sekitan Kinen Koen-guchi, roughly two minutes away. Tagawa lies in central Fukuoka Prefecture, around an hour and a half from Hakata by rail.
- Who was the Hayashida Harujiro after whom the residence is named?
- He was the first mayor of Tagawa City, in office from 1943 to 1946. Before that he headed the town of Ita and served in the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly, eventually as its speaker. A memorial stele to him stands nearby; its bronze statue, put up in 1937, was surrendered for metal during the war.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House (旧林田春次郎家住宅本屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3330-1 and others, Shinmachi, Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 40-0067, 69th round |
| Year Designated | 26 January 2011 (Heisei 23) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, single-storey with partial second floor, tiled roof, building area 210 m² |
| Owner | Privately held; no owner recorded in the national register entry |
| Public Access | In use as Ryotei Aogiri. Interior accessible to restaurant guests by reservation; closed Mondays |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00008603
- Cultural Heritage Online: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/225009
- Tagawa City: Former Hayashida Harujiro Family Residence Main House and Guest House
- https://www.joho.tagawa.fukuoka.jp/kiji0033108/index.html
- Ryotei Aogiri, official site
- https://aogiri.info/
- Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting, Jimo Times: feature on Ryotei Aogiri (12 September 2025)
- https://kbc.co.jp/wish/article/43078/
Last verified: 2026.08.25