Heishi Family Residence

A Farmstead in Northern Fukushima City

Heishi Family Residence (瓶子家住宅, Heishi-ke Jūtaku) is a large farmhouse compound at Moriai in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, built around a main house and gatehouse of 1868 to 1882, whose six structures were entered together on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 November 2016. The surname is read Heishi, the reading given by both the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and Fukushima City's own list of cultural properties.

The compound sits in the northern part of the city, just southeast of Bijutsukan-Toshokan-mae Station on the Fukushima Kōtsū Iizaka Line. Houses and apartment blocks have long since filled the surrounding fields. Inside the boundary, though, the plan of a prosperous farming household survives intact: a 13-bay main house at the centre, a long gatehouse closing the south side, storehouses and a household shrine tucked toward the back. The property is privately owned.

All six buildings were registered on the same day, in the 85th round of registrations, under consecutive numbers 07-0169 to 07-0174.

Six Buildings, Six Decades

The Heishi Family Residence was not built in one campaign. Lay the Agency's dates side by side and the compound reads as a household adding what it needed, decade by decade.

The main house and the nagayamon gatehouse come first, both dated to the early Meiji period, between 1868 and 1882. The centre and the public face of the property were fixed before anything else. Marks on the main house beams show where racks for silkworm trays once hung, so the building itself confirms that the family raised silkworms under its own roof.

In 1888 the household set up its ujigami shrine in the northwest of the grounds. The Taishō era brought more room and more storage: a fireproof document storehouse in 1913, and between 1912 and 1918 a two-storey annex behind the main house, its upper reception room fitted with a decorative alcove, shelves and a built-in writing desk in fine timbers. That annex looks very much like the family making space to receive guests properly.

The grain storehouse belongs to the early Showa period, between 1926 and 1945, and was moved to its present spot in the northwest corner in 1984. The shrine was relocated the same year. Both moves predate registration by more than three decades, so they reflect the family's own rearrangement of the back of the plot rather than any heritage scheme.

The main house was itself altered in the early Showa years. A Meiji frame with Showa repairs, flanked by Taishō rooms and storehouses: the Heishi Family Residence is a working compound that kept being adjusted, which is a large part of its interest.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The Heishi Family Residence faces south. Along the southern edge runs the Nagayamon, seven and a half bays long, with the entrance passage at its centre. The bay east of the passage served as a cattle shed and the bay to the west as a store.

Through the gate, the main house stands at the centre of the plot. Directly behind it to the north is the annex, joined to the main house by a covered corridor, and immediately west of the annex stands the document storehouse. The grain storehouse occupies the northwest corner, with the paired shrines just south of it, facing east. The sequence runs from the public gate, through the family's living quarters, to stores and finally the household deity in the most private corner.

• Main house (early Meiji, altered early Showa; registration no. 07-0169)
• Annex (early Taishō; registration no. 07-0170)
• Document storehouse (1913; registration no. 07-0171)
• Grain storehouse (early Showa, moved 1984; registration no. 07-0172)
• Nagayamon gate (early Meiji; registration no. 07-0173)
• Ujigami shrine (1888, moved 1984; registration no. 07-0174)

The registration criteria differ by building. Only the main house was registered as a model of form, the standard applied to buildings of particular design merit. The other five were registered for contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency describes the main house as a rare surviving example of a large farmhouse in the area, and the grain storehouse as conveying the layout of a wealthy farming estate. Each building has its own merits, but the survival of the full set is what gives the compound its weight.

Visiting and Getting There

The Heishi Family Residence is a private property and is not open to the public. Neither the Agency for Cultural Affairs nor Fukushima City lists any open days or arrangements for visits (checked 1 October 2026). None of the six buildings can be entered, and what a visitor can see is limited to the exterior from outside the boundary.

The clearest view is of the nagayamon on the south side, the formal front of the property, from where the relationship between the gate and the great roof of the main house is easiest to grasp. The annex, the two storehouses and the shrine stand deep inside the plot and are hard to make out from outside.

No notice prohibiting photography of the exterior could be found. This is a private home, however, so avoid lingering with a camera aimed through the gate or into the grounds, and do not step inside the boundary.

The nearest station is Bijutsukan-Toshokan-mae on the Iizaka Line, a little over 100 metres northwest of the compound in a straight line. It is the second stop from Fukushima Station on trains toward Iizaka Onsen, a ride of 3 to 4 minutes, and the adult fare is 180 yen under the fare table revised on 17 May 2025. The Iizaka Line platforms at Fukushima share a station building with the Abukuma Express and connect to JR Fukushima Station through a transfer gate. No parking for visitors is indicated.

The Agency's database gives the address as 35-1 Aza-Dai, Moriai, Fukushima City. Each building's construction and points of interest are covered on its own page.