Soeda Family Residence

About the Soeda Family Residence

The Soeda Family Residence (添田家住宅, Soeda-ke Jūtaku) is a rural homestead in Hanukita, Kitayama, Ishikawa Town, Fukushima Prefecture, whose main house and three storehouses, built between the middle of the Meiji era and 1933, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2011.

Kitayama lies in the hills northeast of Iwaki-Ishikawa Station on the JR Suigun Line, the station that serves the centre of Ishikawa Town. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the main house at the back of the plot, in the middle, with fields and stands of trees on every side. Around it stand three clay-walled storehouses: one for documents and household goods, a second on the western edge, and a third named for soy sauce and fitted out as a workroom.

The reading of the family name is not quite settled. The national database gives "Soeda" for the three storehouses but "Soeta" for the main house. This site follows the majority and spells the name Soeda.

Four Buildings, Registered Together

All four buildings of the Soeda Family Residence were registered on 25 July 2011 under consecutive numbers, 07-0121 to 07-0124, and on the same ground: each contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The national database records them as follows.

• Main House: 1933, renovated 2009. Two-storey timber house, tiled roof, building area 117 m²
• Document Storehouse: late Meiji era. Two-storey clay-walled storehouse, tiled roof, building area 26 m²
• West Storehouse: mid-Meiji era, moved to its present spot in the early Showa era. Two storeys, tiled roof, building area 37 m²
• Soy Sauce Storehouse: mid-Meiji era. Single storey, sheet-metal roof, building area 49 m²

The storehouses are the older half of the estate. The west and soy sauce storehouses go back to the middle of the Meiji era (1868 to 1912) and the document storehouse to its later years, while the present main house dates from 1933.

The west storehouse was moved in the early Showa era, roughly when the main house was going up. Why it was moved, where it stood before, and what kind of house the family lived in before 1933 are not recorded in any published source.

How the Soeda Family Residence Is Laid Out

The main house of the Soeda Family Residence is T-shaped: a long north-south block with an east-west wing joined to the middle of its east side.

The storehouses sit to the southeast and to the west of it. In the southeast corner the document storehouse and the soy sauce storehouse run parallel, both with their ridges east to west, the first to the north and the second to the south. The west storehouse stands alone at the far western edge of the plot, its doorway facing back toward the house.

The level of finish says something about each building's job. The document and west storehouses are two storeys high, coated in lime plaster above a skirting of Namako-kabe tile panels, and roofed with tiles. The soy sauce storehouse has one storey, a sheet-metal roof, and walls left at the intermediate coat of plaster. Each building has its own page with more on its construction.

Visiting the Soeda Family Residence

The Soeda Family Residence is not open to the public. The national database does not name the owner, and Ishikawa Town's list of cultural properties gives only the district, Kitayama Hanukita. As of October 2026 the town website announced no tours or special openings. Please stay off the property and look only from the public road.

Because the main house stands at the back of the plot behind fields and trees, the road may not give a clear view of the whole estate.

The nearest station to the Soeda Family Residence is Iwaki-Ishikawa on the JR Suigun Line; the estate is about 4.6 km to the northeast in a straight line. No bus route onward from the station could be confirmed, so plan on a car or taxi. No visitor parking is advertised.