Former Koketsu Family Residence (Kominka Aiseki)

The Former Koketsu Family Residence (Kominka Aiseki)

The Former Koketsu Family Residence (Kominka Aiseki) (旧纐纈家住宅（古民家あいせき）, Kyū Kōketsu-ke Jūtaku) in Honmachi 7-chome, Seki City, Gifu Prefecture, is a former sake shop town house of the mid-Meiji period (1883–1897), and its shop and main house, tea room and well were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on August 6, 2025 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The registration numbers are 21-0307 for the shop and main house, 21-0308 for the tea room and 21-0309 for the well, and all three belong to Seki City (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Gifu Prefecture describes the site as the premises of a former sake shop facing south onto Honmachi-dori, now used by the city as a base for the neighbourhood.

Kominka Aiseki, literally "old house Aiseki", is the facility's nickname, chosen by public vote; in its management notices Seki City calls it the Seki City Old House Community Facility (Aiseki). The nickname is also written in brackets in the registered names.

From a Honmachi Sake Shop to Kominka Aiseki

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the shop and main house of the Former Koketsu Family Residence to the mid-Meiji period, while Seki City and the Gifu Shimbun give 1887. The house was altered in 1941, and the tea room was added on its north side in 1927 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

In 1908, according to Seki City, local cutlery makers founded the Seki Credit and Purchasing Association, the forerunner of today's Seki Shinkin Bank, and set up its office in one corner of the building. The Agency's note likewise records that the interior of the house once served as the association's office.

More recently the house was known as Kominka Sanroku and was used for exhibitions and tea gatherings. In 2020 the owner donated the land and buildings to Seki City, asking that they be used to bring life back to the town, and the city carried out seismic strengthening (Seki City; Gifu Shimbun). The Agency records that the shop and main house and the tea room were both altered in 2021.

The facility opened on January 15, 2022. Its nickname was chosen from 113 public entries and was proposed by a university student from Seki (Chunichi Shimbun). The Gifu Shimbun explains that Aiseki joins ai, love, with Seki, and also carries the sense of meeting someone and sitting face to face. Since April 2025 it has been run by the Total Balance and Dolphin consortium as designated manager (Seki City).

How the Three Properties Fit Together

At the Former Koketsu Family Residence the shop and main house stands on Honmachi-dori, and a courtyard lies behind it to the north (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The house has two storeys under a gabled, side-entry roof of pantiles, with the eastern half of the roof set lower as an Ochimune.

The tea room is a single-storey wing reached by a covered corridor from the veranda on the north face of the house; the corridor is left open on its courtyard side. The well sits toward the south of the courtyard, close to the house, and is said to have served the tea room alone (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Shop and dwelling open to the street, a tea room at the back, and a courtyard with its well in between: the three properties together keep the way a Honmachi merchant used his plot. Each building is described on its own page.

Visiting the Former Koketsu Family Residence

As Kominka Aiseki, the Former Koketsu Family Residence is a free space open to anyone. Opening hours are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and it is closed on Mondays, on the day after public holidays and over the New Year holidays (Seki City, checked November 2026). Food and drink are allowed inside, but no open flames.

Seki City's floor guide lists an earth-floored hall, a living room and the tea room on the ground floor, a tatami room and a wood-floored room upstairs, and the courtyard. Booking a room for private use requires an application and costs 100 yen per room per hour, or 300 yen per hour for the earth-floored hall or the back garden, tripled when admission is charged or the use is commercial (Seki City). Enquiries go to Kominka Aiseki (0575-36-4048).

There is no parking, and the city asks visitors to come on foot, by bicycle or by public transport. Nearby car parks are Honmachi 7-chome Hiroba (about 50 metres), Azakurayama car park (about 300 metres), Seki City Terminal (about 500 metres) and Sekiterasu (about 700 metres), and the Honmachi 5-chome and Sakaemachi 1-chome bus stops are each about 200 metres away (Seki City). The Gifu Shimbun gives a 7-minute walk from Seki Station on the Nagara River Railway.

No official guidance on photography was found. People use the rooms for study and meetings, so ask the staff before taking pictures and keep other visitors out of the frame.