Goto Family Residence Former Post Office

A village post office attached to a house

The Goto Family Residence Former Post Office (後藤家住宅旧郵便局舎) in Akutami, Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture, is the former post office building on the Goto family's property, built in 1937 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 4, 2021 (number 21-0288).

The Goto Family Residence Former Post Office stands toward the south end of the compound with its entrance facing east onto the Gujo Kaido. Paired with the main house on the other side of the gate, it forms the southern half of the street frontage. The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it for showing what a small post office run from a private household looked like.

Gifu City's list of registered properties dates the building to 1879, but the national database gives 1937. This article follows the national record.

Clapboard walls and sash windows

The Goto Family Residence Former Post Office is a single-storey timber building running east to west under a hipped, pantiled roof (Sangawara-buki). A porch projects from the centre of the east side, putting the door right on the road. The building area is 112 m².

The walls are clad in overlapping Shitami-itabari clapboard above a panelled dado, with white Shikkui plaster in the narrow band above the windows. The windows mix vertical sliding sashes with Japanese sliding windows topped by small transoms. A tiled Japanese roof over Western-style windows is typical of modest public buildings of the early Showa years.

A skylit office ceiling

Inside, the feature to note in the Goto Family Residence Former Post Office is the ceiling of the old clerks' office. It is lined with plywood, and its centre is raised in a coved recess holding a skylight, which dropped daylight onto the work area behind the counter.

The Goto Family Residence Former Post Office was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. Classed as a government office building, it shows how postal work was once carried on from a corner of a family's own property.

Visiting

The Goto Family Residence Former Post Office is privately owned and its interior is closed. Its east front and projecting porch face the road and should be visible from the street; please do not enter the grounds.

The story of the compound, what can be seen from the road and directions are on the Goto Family Residence page.