Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki

About the Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki

The Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki (矢吹家住宅新座敷, Yabuki-ke Jūtaku Shinzashiki) is a single-storey reception wing built in the early Showa era (1926 to 1945) onto the back of the main house on the Yabuki family estate in Narukawa, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

A zashiki is a formal tatami room for receiving guests. The Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki runs east to west under a hipped roof of pantiles, with a lean-to roof (Geya) around it in tile and sheet metal. Its building area is 54 m².

The Kyakuma and the Hikae

The Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki holds two eight-mat rooms side by side, with verandas on three sides. The western room, called the kyakuma or guest room, is the principal one, with a Tokonoma alcove and staggered shelves (Chigaidana). The eastern room is the hikae, the anteroom.

Above the partition between them is a Ranma transom carved in openwork (Sukashibori). Seated in the guest room, one looks through the carving into the anteroom beyond.

The room names alone tell you what the wing was for: hosting visitors in proper style.

A Room That Opens onto the Garden

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out in the Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki is the way the storm shutters are stored. They slide back into pockets on the main-house side, so with them open no woodwork is left along the veranda and the rooms merge with the rear garden.

Behind the main house lies a rear garden, screened from an inner court by a garden gate and wall. The verandas and the shutter arrangement seem designed so that guests could look out onto it.

The Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape. It was added to the 1912 main house in the Showa years, and the word shin, new, in its name records that later arrival.

Seeing the Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki

The Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki stands behind the main house and is not open. There is currently no chance to see the openwork transom or the alcove (checked October 2026).

From the street on the east, the Yabuki Family Residence New Zashiki is hidden by the main house and storehouses, so it is unlikely to be visible from the road. Directions are on the Yabuki Family Residence page.