Former Horikiri Family Residence Library

About the Former Horikiri Family Residence Library

The Former Horikiri Family Residence Library (旧堀切家住宅書庫, Kyū Horikiri-ke Jūtaku Shoko) is a small single-story timber building at the southwest corner of the main house on the Kyu Horikiri-tei estate in Iizaka-machi, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, built around 1965 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2020.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the 17th head of the Horikiri family built it as a book room and study for his practice as a lawyer. With a building area of 11 square meters, the Horikiri Library is both the smallest and the newest of the six registered buildings.

A corridor connects it to the main house, and it faces the street together with the front gate in the west boundary. Among the Meiji-era house and storehouses, it is the one addition from the later Showa era.

Why the Library Was Registered

The Former Horikiri Family Residence Library was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency describes it as a main element that, together with the front gate, gives the street its character.

Seen from the lane, the gate and the library stand in front, with the roof of the main house rising behind. Small as it is, the library sits right on the street and does much to set the outward look of the estate.

What to Look For at the Library

The roof is hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) and covered in pantiles (Sangawara-buki). Putting the same kind of roof as the main house porch on a building of just 11 square meters suggests a deliberate effort to match the formal front of the estate.

The walls change finish halfway up. The lower part is clad in overlapping horizontal boards (Shitami-itabari), and above it the wall is finished in Shikkui plaster. Where boards meet plaster, a horizontal line runs along the sides of the low building.

As both library and study, it was where the lawyer kept his case papers and law books, coming through the corridor from the main house to work. Earlier generations of Horikiri men made their names in national politics and administration; the library preserves the everyday workplace of a Showa-era head of the house.

Visiting the Library

Because the Former Horikiri Family Residence Library faces the street, its exterior can be seen from the lane by the front gate. The hip-and-gable roof and the board-and-plaster walls are easy to make out from the lane.

The facility guide on the Kyu Horikiri-tei website does not list the library, and we could not confirm if the interior is open to visitors (checked October 2026). If you would like to look inside, ask at the reception desk.

For a view of the gate and the library together, walk back a little way along the lane. From there you see the whole street front that the Agency singles out.