Former Kitaokada Family Residence Main House

What Is the Former Kitaokada Family Residence Main House?

The Former Kitaokada Family Residence Main House (旧北岡田家住宅主屋, Kyū Kitaokada-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a two-storey timber house completed in 1916 in Aiba, Ono Town, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on August 13, 2012. It is the centerpiece of the landowning Kitaokada family's estate and now belongs to Ono Town.

With a building area of 432 square meters and 17 rooms of various sizes, it is far larger than an ordinary farmhouse. Ono Town records that Matsuura Jinosuke, a well-regarded local master carpenter, broke ground in 1914 and needed two years to finish it.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Kitaokada Main House as a Japanese-style building with fine joinery and a commanding residential presence. It holds registration number 21-0204 under the criterion of contributing to the country's historic landscape.

It was the first building on the estate to be listed. The Annex, the two storehouses and the two barns followed six years later, in 2018.

Exterior and Plan

The house sits near the middle of the large plot and faces south. Its gabled roof, laid with Sangawara-buki pan tiles, is ringed by a deep Geya, a lean-to eave that shelters the walls on all sides. Toward the east end of the façade projects a formal entrance under a hip-and-gable roof, with a Shikidai step where guests were received.

Just to the right of that guest entrance is the everyday entrance, which keeps its original double doors and a heavy door that lifts upward to open. Seen side by side, the two doorways show how the household separated visitors from family and workers.

On the west side lie two 15-mat rooms, the middle room and the main Zashiki reception room. Both look onto the south garden across a wide veranda corridor, and next to the Tsukeshoin writing alcove in the zashiki a large window frames a view of the garden.

Heavy Timber and Taishō-Era Touches

Inside the Former Kitaokada Family Residence Main House, the size of the timber is what you notice first. The central pillar is 45 centimeters square. Dark, heavy beams, left in their natural curves, span overhead, and one of the Sashigamoi lintel beams measures 48 centimeters deep and 17.5 centimeters thick. Ono Town notes that such generous members make the frame unusually stable.

The finest work is in the Buddhist altar room, whose ceiling is a raised, coved coffered ceiling with a fine inner grid, a refinement of the Gō-tenjō type.

Look up, too, for touches of the Taishō era. Numerous skylights bring daylight deep into the plan, and lightning rods stand at both ends of the ridge. The house keeps a traditional form while quietly adopting new technology.

Visiting the Kitaokada Main House

The ground floor of the Former Kitaokada Family Residence Main House is open on the general and special opening days set by Ono Town, with free admission. On other days the house stays shut.

On an opening day, start in the south garden to take in the formal entrance and the depth of the eaves, then step through the everyday entrance. From the earthen-floored area the curved beams are easiest to read. In the zashiki, pause at the window beside the writing alcove and look out over the garden. Follow the staff's guidance on photography.