Former Kitaokada Family Residence

What Is the Former Kitaokada Family Residence?

The Former Kitaokada Family Residence (旧北岡田家住宅, Kyū Kitaokada-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of the Kitaokada, a landowning family, in Aiba, Ono Town, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, where six buildings raised between the early Meiji period and 1928 are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan. Ono Town now owns the estate and opens it to the public on set days, mostly in spring and autumn.

The name needs a word of explanation. Aiba had two powerful households called Okada, and villagers told them apart as the "north" Okada (Kitaokada) and the "south" Okada (Minamiokada). This is the northern one.

The grounds cover 3,882.6 square meters. The whole plot was raised about 1.5 meters above the road, then enclosed by walls of river cobbles topped with a tiled board fence. Gates open to the south and the north.

A Village Headman's Family Becomes a Modern Landlord

According to Ono Town, the Kitaokada served in the Edo period as Shōya (village headman) of Aiba, then part of the Ōgaki domain, and held a post overseeing riverboat landings for the domain's firewood shipments. They were also granted the right to bear a surname and wear a sword. Farmland and river trade made them rich, and they were counted as equals of the Minamiokada.

After the Meiji Restoration, family heads took local office, and together with the Minamiokada they founded a firewood company. The estate as it stands was the work of Okada Yoshimaro, the fifth head, who is said to have spent 30 years completing it with carefully sourced timber and well-known craftsmen.

Postwar land reform broke up most rural landlords' estates in Japan, and many of their houses were sold, altered or pulled down. For Ono Town, what sets the Former Kitaokada Family Residence apart is how little it has changed.

How the Six Buildings Are Arranged

The Main House stands at the center of the Former Kitaokada Family Residence, facing south. The Annex adjoins it to the west, and the North Barn sits behind it. The Rice Storehouse occupies the southeast corner and the Tool Storehouse the northwest corner, both on high stone bases that make them visible from the lane outside the wall. On the east side, the East Barn joins the Rice Storehouse.

Dates from the Agency for Cultural Affairs database give this sequence:

• Annex: early Meiji period (1868 to 1882), altered in 1949 and 1960
• Rice Storehouse: 1904, extended in the late Taishō period
• Tool Storehouse: 1905, extended in 1934
• Main House: 1916, begun in 1914
• East Barn: late Taishō period (1919 to 1926)
• North Barn: 1928

Only the Annex predates the Nōbi earthquake of 1891, which devastated the plains of Gifu and Aichi. The other five went up after it, and the Main House was finished more than 30 years after the Annex.

The garden, front gate and wall are protected separately by Ono Town, which designated them in 2003. Matsuura Jinosuke, the master carpenter who built the Main House, also built the gate in 1909 and the wall between 1912 and 1914. The garden, about 1,300 square meters, was laid out between 1911 and 1913 by Matsuo Jūichi, a noted gardener of the area. Its artificial hill stands 5.5 meters above the bottom of the pond, and it is known for the autumn color of its dōdan-tsutsuji shrubs.

Registered in Two Stages

The Main House was registered first, on August 13, 2012. Ono Town reports that it was judged a modern Japanese-style building of refined craftsmanship set within an imposing residential compound.

On November 2, 2018, the Annex, the Rice Storehouse, the Tool Storehouse with its covered corridor, the East Barn and the North Barn were added. The Annex was registered as a model of form and design; the other five qualify because they contribute to the historic landscape. With the storehouses and barns on the list, the Former Kitaokada Family Residence can be read as a whole working farm estate rather than a single fine house.

Next door to the west stands the shop and house of the Former Okada Sake Shop, built in 1917 for close relatives of the Kitaokada and registered in its own right.

Visiting and Getting There

The Former Kitaokada Family Residence is usually closed and can be entered only on opening days set by Ono Town. For autumn 2026, the general opening runs on Saturdays and Sundays from October 10 through November 15, plus November 28 and 29, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (last entry 3:30 p.m.). Admission is free, and the open areas include the ground floor of the Main House and the garden.

A special opening with talks by members of the Ono Town Cultural Property Preservation Society follows on November 21 through 23. There is also a spring opening and an early-summer special opening; those for 2026 have already ended. Dates change every year, so check Ono Town's notice before you travel.

The address is 282 Aza Muradori, Oaza Aiba, Ono Town. The surrounding lanes are narrow and street parking is not allowed. There is a lot for about 10 cars just south of the Former Kitaokada Family Residence and another for about 20 cars some 80 meters to the east. Inquiries go to the Ono Akebono Museum (0585-36-1888).