A Headman's Estate, Assembled in Stages
The Arakawa Family Residence (荒川家住宅, Arakawa-ke Jutaku) at 141 Otani, Nyukawa-cho, Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, comprises a main house built in 1796 and a storehouse built in 1747, designated an Important Cultural Property on 28 December 1971. The designation number is 01836 and the quantity is two buildings. A ridge tablet is registered as attached property.
The Arakawa held office as kentai nanushi, a headman responsible for several villages at once. They filled that post over six villages around Otani from the Genroku era onward, and family tradition places them in the lesser office of kimoiri as far back as the Tensho era of the late sixteenth century.
Most visitors walk straight past the storehouse toward the large two-storeyed main house at the rear. The chronology runs the other way. The storehouse went up in 1747, forty-nine years before the frame of the main house was raised, and it is the oldest building surviving on the site. Neither date is a stylistic estimate. The main house is dated by its munafuda, the wooden tablet inscribed in ink and fixed into the roof structure when a frame is raised, which carries the year 1796. The storehouse is dated by construction documents handed down in the family together with an ink inscription found on its second-floor boards, both pointing to 1747.
The Main House: A Widened Span and a Composed Facade
The main house runs 21.5 metres along the front and 14.8 metres in depth, two storeys under a gabled roof of boards weighted with stones.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the house at an important point in the development of Hida farmhouse form, and what it singles out is that depth. Widening a building front to back demands timber long enough to span the distance without an intermediate post. The Arakawa achieved 14.8 metres by using massive members.
Across the front, brackets carry a projecting purlin that supports a small pent roof, and two courses of exposed tie rails run beneath it. Above them stands a row of latticed second-floor windows. The crossing of thick horizontals with fine straight members produces an elevation better read as a composed surface than as structure simply left exposed. Among farmhouses with this kind of front, the building dates early.
The choice of timber can be checked while walking the interior: cypress mainly for the columns, pine for the beams, and chestnut for the sills that take damp from the ground. The roof boards, called kure, are chestnut and similar woods split thin and held down by logs and stones.
The Storehouse: Gable End Against Long Eaves
The storehouse measures 5.5 metres by 3.9, two storeys under a gabled roof, boarded and stone-weighted like the main house.
The difference between the two shows in where you enter. The main house is entered from the long eaves side. The storehouse is entered at the gable end, so the triangular gable wall faces you as you approach and the roof falls away to either side. With only a few metres between them, the contrast reads at a glance.
A kuramae, a covered forechamber, is attached on the east. It receives movement into the storehouse proper and softens wind and snow. It has a history of its own: it appears to have been remodelled to a depth of about 2.7 metres with a two-storeyed gabled roof before the main house was built. The designation includes it.
Why Two Buildings Form One Item
Set out in order, the sequence runs: the storehouse of 1747, the remodelling of its forechamber, and the main house of 1796. The Arakawa served as headman over six villages from the Genroku era, and the estate was assembled step by step as the family's standing consolidated.
The main house alone is an example of developed Hida farmhouse form. The storehouse alone is a modest outbuilding. Only with both in view does the estate read as a layered thing, put together across half a century. That is what the joint designation records.
One note on dating. The national database assigns the storehouse to the middle Edo period and the main house to the late Edo period. Some local introductions describe both as middle Edo, so the primary record is the safer guide.
Visiting
The Arakawa owned and occupied the house until 1983, when the former village of Nyukawa purchased it. Conservation work ran for three years from 1985, after which the site opened to the public; following municipal mergers it now belongs to Takayama City. Admission is free.
The storehouse is best seen from the garden. Placed beside a main house 21.5 metres long, the difference in scale and purpose becomes concrete. Whether the storehouse interior can be entered is not stated publicly, so ask at the reception desk. The same applies to photography.
Opening hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from June to September and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. during the rest of the open season. The site closes on Wednesdays and for the winter, from 1 December to 31 March. It is about a minute on foot from the Otani stop on the Nohi bus, or about 40 minutes by car from the Hida-Kiyomi interchange of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway via National Route 158, with parking available.
Inside the main house, alongside local household tools, a letter from Date Masamune to Kanamori Nagachika is displayed. A local history museum on the same site shows photographs of Mount Norikura by Hosoe Mitsuhiro and images of stone Buddhist figures from the Nyukawa district.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Gifu
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Arakawa Family Residence (Nyukawa Village, Ono District, Gifu Prefecture)
- [ Shirakawago & Takayama Old Town Tours ]
Q&A
- When was the Arakawa Family Residence built and designated?
- The storehouse dates from 1747 and the main house from 1796. Designation as an Important Cultural Property followed on 28 December 1971, under number 01836, covering two buildings with a ridge tablet as attached property.
- Which is the oldest building at the Arakawa Family Residence?
- The storehouse. Built in 1747, it precedes the raising of the main house frame by forty-nine years. Its date rests on construction documents kept in the family and an ink inscription found on the second-floor boards.
- What is valued about the main house of the Arakawa Family Residence?
- Its depth. Spanning 14.8 metres front to back without an intermediate post requires exceptionally long timber, and the Arakawa achieved it with massive members. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the house at an important point in the development of Hida farmhouse form.
- How do the main house and storehouse differ in appearance?
- By where you enter. The main house is entered from the long eaves side; the storehouse at the gable end, so its triangular gable wall faces the approach. Standing a few metres apart, the contrast is immediate. A covered forechamber on the storehouse's east side buffers wind and snow.
- Can the Arakawa Family Residence be visited, and what does it cost?
- Admission is free. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from June to September and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the rest of the open season, closed Wednesdays and from 1 December to 31 March. Ask at reception about entering the storehouse interior and about photography.
Basic Information
| Name | Arakawa Family Residence (荒川家住宅, Nyukawa Village, Ono District, Gifu Prefecture) |
|---|---|
| Location | 141 Otani, Nyukawa-cho, Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structure), designation no. 01836 |
| Year Designated | 28 December 1971 (Showa 46) |
| Quantity | 2 buildings (main house 1, storehouse 1); 1 ridge tablet as attached property |
| Dimensions | Main house: 21.5 m by 14.8 m, two storeys, gabled roof, entered on the eaves side, stone-weighted boards (1796). Storehouse: 5.5 m by 3.9 m, two storeys, gabled roof, entered at the gable end, stone-weighted boards, including the covered forechamber (1747) |
| Owner | Takayama City |
| Public Access | Open to the public, admission free. 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June to September, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. otherwise. Closed Wednesdays and from 1 December to 31 March |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Arakawa Family Residence (main house)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/1100
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Arakawa Family Residence (storehouse)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/1101
- Cultural Heritage Online: Arakawa Family Residence, main house
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/193760
- Cultural Heritage Online: Arakawa Family Residence
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/135041
- Takayama City: Arakawa Family Residence, Important Cultural Property
- https://www.city.takayama.lg.jp/kurashi/1000021/1000119/1001041.html
- Takayama City: facility information, Arakawa Family Residence
- https://www.city.takayama.lg.jp/shisetsu/1004141/1004280/1004299.html
Last verified: 2026.08.31
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Arakawa Family Residence (Nyukawa Village, Ono District, Gifu Prefecture) storehouse 0.00 km
- Arakawa Family Residence (Nyukawa Village, Ono District, Gifu Prefecture) Main house 0.01 km