Former Horikiri Family Residence Main House

About the Former Horikiri Family Residence Main House

The Former Horikiri Family Residence Main House (旧堀切家住宅主屋, Kyū Horikiri-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is a modern Japanese-style house built in 1881 at the center of the Kyu Horikiri-tei estate in Iizaka-machi, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2020.

In 1880 fire swept through the Horikiri estate and the old main house burned. The present building went up the next year: a single-story timber house with a building area of 281 square meters. The Kyu Horikiri-tei website puts the floor area at about 84 tsubo and counts nine principal rooms.

The house stands on the right bank of the Surikami River, on the west side of the grounds, facing south. The new and middle storehouses lie to the north, the tool storehouse to the northeast and the library at the southwest corner, with corridors running to the new storehouse, the tool storehouse and the library. Everything else on the estate is arranged around the Horikiri main house.

Why the Main House Was Registered

Of the six registered parts of the Former Horikiri Family Residence, only the main house was registered as a model of architectural form. The other five were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, it is the design of this building, rather than its place in the townscape, that earned the listing.

The point the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is the roof. The broad hipped roof is covered in natural slate, and the Agency calls the house a rare example of a modern Japanese-style building roofed this way. According to the Kyu Horikiri-tei website, the stone came from Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture.

The website adds that although the house was a hurried rebuild after the fire, the ceilings were made high, the decorative fittings of the formal rooms were carefully finished, and skylights were worked in to bring daylight inside. That is a good deal of care for a family that had to move back in within a year.

What to Look For at the Main House

Start at the south front. Over the entrance porch, which has its own hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof, a large triangular dormer gable (Chidori-hafu) rises from the main roof, so two gables stack one above the other. For a one-story family house, the front is unusually formal.

The slate is natural stone split into thin sheets. It is thinner and lighter than ceramic tile. Walk round the estate and you will notice that the Former Horikiri Family Residence Main House is the only building with a stone roof; the storehouses all carry red clay tiles.

Inside, look up in the anteroom known as the tsugi-no-ma. The thin battens of the Saobuchi-tenjō batten-and-board ceiling curve upward in an arc toward the middle of the room, lifting the ceiling. The Agency picks out this detail as an example of the care lavished on the interior.

Three of the rooms are now let out as meeting rooms 1, 2 and 3, still labeled with their old household names: the living room (ima), the middle room (naka-no-ma) and the storeroom (nando).

Visiting the Main House

The Former Horikiri Family Residence Main House can be visited during the opening hours of Kyu Horikiri-tei, and entry is free. The new and tool storehouses, which hold displays on the family, are joined to the house by corridors.

The living room, middle room, storeroom and the cooking room are rented to groups of five or more, and they are closed to visitors while a class or meeting is in progress. If you particularly want to see the curved ceiling of the anteroom, ask at the reception desk which rooms are free.

The porch and the stacked gables are best seen from the garden on the south side. The website lists no rule against casual snapshots, but shoots with brought-in equipment and photos intended for magazines or other media need prior permission (checked October 2026).