Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki (Detached Guest Wing)

About the Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki

The Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki (阿部家住宅離れ座敷, Abe-ke Jūtaku Hanare Zashiki, the detached guest wing) is a single-storey timber reception wing built in the middle of the Meiji era (1868 to 1912) south of the main house on the Abe family estate in Kayaba, Sasagino, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

The Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki runs north to south and covers 93 m². Inside there are just two Zashiki reception rooms, one of eight tatami mats and one of six. There is no kitchen and no storeroom: the building existed only to receive guests.

A Wing That Outlived Its House

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, this wing was originally joined to the predecessor of the present main house. That house was replaced in 1953, so the wing is more than half a century older than the building it now stands beside. When the old house came down the reception rooms were kept, and they ended up standing on their own as a hanare, a detached wing.

The Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki was registered as a model of design. Only three of the nine buildings on the estate were registered on that basis, and this is the only reception wing among them.

Two Roof Forms and Bark-Edged Rails

The roof changes shape along its length. At the south end it is hip-and-gable; at the north end it is a plain gable. Both are tiled. The more formal end faces the southern garden, while the north end, where the wing once met the old house, was finished simply.

A sheet-metal Hisashi runs all the way round the building, sheltering a veranda on every side, so each room can be stepped out of.

Inside, the database draws attention to the menkawa Nageshi, horizontal rails on the walls whose corners keep the natural rounded surface of the log. The finish was a favourite of refined sukiya-style rooms. The rest of the joinery also uses good timber and careful work.

Seeing the Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki

The Abe Family Residence Hanare Zashiki belongs to a private home and its interior is not open. Fukushima Prefecture's heritage list states that interior photography is not permitted, so the bark-edged rails cannot currently be seen.

Standing inside the plot to the south of the main house, the wing is hard to see from the road. The hip-and-gable end of the roof on the south is the part to look for. Directions to the estate are on the Abe Family Residence page.