Ueno Family Residence (Kitakata)

About the Ueno Family Residence (Kitakata)

The Ueno Family Residence (上野家住宅, Ueno-ke Jūtaku) is a townhouse estate of earthen-walled storehouses in Matsuyama-machi Muramatsu, Kitakata City, Fukushima Prefecture, where seven structures, from the main house of 1876 to a brick boundary wall, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2010.

Kitakata calls itself a town of kura, the thick-walled clay storehouses of rural Japan. The Ueno estate, about 3 kilometers north of JR Kitakata Station as the crow flies, is a compact example of what a well-off household built with them: the house itself is a two-story storehouse, and behind it a line of further storehouses runs back from the street. A wall of glazed brick closes off the property.

No public record we could find explains what trade the Ueno family followed. The Agency for Cultural Affairs, however, describes the main house as having a former shop wing and a former workshop storehouse, which points to a merchant household that kept a shop on the street.

How the Ueno Family Residence Is Laid Out

Read together, the agency's seven entries give a clear picture of the plot. The main house faces east onto the street. It is L-shaped, with an east-west wing holding a storehouse parlor (kura-zashiki) and a north-south wing, the former shop, running along the street. Kitchen quarters and a former workshop storehouse sit behind it, and the Miso Storehouse is attached to the back of the workshop.

From there the storehouses continue west in a single chain. The Former Grain Storehouse joins the west end of the Miso Storehouse, and the Brick Storehouse stands beyond it on a north-south axis. South of that chain, west of the main house, is the Furnishings Storehouse, and southwest of the main house is the Detached House with a garden on its east side. The Brick Wall turns a right angle as it runs from the street front along the northern boundary.

Kitakata City lists a typical pattern for local plots: shop, then house, then storehouses and outbuildings, set one behind another as you go back from the street. The Ueno Family Residence follows that sequence closely.

Seven Registered Structures at the Ueno Family Residence

The national database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main House: 1876. Earthen-walled, 2-story, tiled roof, building area 313 m²
• Miso Storehouse: 1879. Earthen-walled, single-story, tiled roof, building area 29 m²
• Former Grain Storehouse: late Edo period (1830 to 1867). Earthen-walled, 2-story, tiled roof, building area 87 m²
• Brick Storehouse: late Meiji era (1898 to 1911), renovated 2001. Brick, 2-story, tiled roof, building area 77 m²
• Furnishings Storehouse: 1876. Earthen-walled, 2-story, tiled roof, building area 46 m²
• Detached House: 1917. Earthen-walled, single-story, tiled roof, building area 46 m²
• Brick Wall: late Meiji era (1898 to 1911). Brick, 24 m long

The Former Grain Storehouse is the oldest, dating from the last decades of the Edo period. The main house and the Furnishings Storehouse followed in 1876 and the Miso Storehouse three years later. Late in the Meiji era the family added the Brick Storehouse and the Brick Wall, and the Detached House of 1917 completed the group that survives today.

Two of the seven, the main house and the Detached House, were registered as models of design. The other five were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

According to Kitakata City, kilns set up at Mitsuya in Iwatsuki-machi from the middle of the Meiji era began producing brick and roof tile locally, known for a reddish glaze, and brick storehouses, walls and chimneys followed. The Ueno brickwork is glazed brick laid in English bond and dates from the same period, though no record we found says where these particular bricks were fired.

Visiting the Ueno Family Residence (Kitakata)

The Ueno Family Residence is a private home. We found no announcement of public openings or interior tours from Kitakata City or local tourism bodies, so please view it only from the street and do not enter the grounds.

From the road you can see the east-facing front of the main house and the brick wall along the street, with an opening fitted with an iron door near its southern end. The pairing of plastered walls and glazed brick is the estate's public face. The storehouse chain, the Furnishings Storehouse and the Detached House all stand deeper inside the plot.

The address is 2740-1 Aza Tokiwacho, Matsuyama-machi Muramatsu, Kitakata City. It lies roughly 3 kilometers north of Kitakata Station on the JR Ban'etsu West Line in a straight line, so a taxi or bicycle is the practical way to get there. As this is a family home, keep photography discreet and considerate of the residents and neighbors.