Isaji Family Residence

An Estate in a Bannerman's Fief

The Isaji Family Residence (伊佐治家住宅, Isaji-ke Jūtaku) is a rural estate in Furuyashiki, Mitake Town, Gifu Prefecture, whose five buildings, raised between the late Edo period and the early Meiji era, were each listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on May 10, 2018. A main house, a reception wing, a tea house, a storehouse and a gatehouse all stand within about 40 metres of one another, with a wooded hill rising behind.

In the Edo period Furuyashiki lay in the fief of the Tsumaki, a Hatamoto house, meaning bannermen who held land directly from the shogun. Family records trace the Isaji line to Itō Jirobei, who went to Nara as a retainer when Tsumaki Yoriyasu was appointed magistrate there in 1696, and whose own house stood just north of the present estate.

The layout visible today took shape more than a century later. According to the same records, Kichibei, who died in 1835 at the age of 89, built the core of the main house, and Kanshichi laid out the garden. Their successor Tōzaburō rose to steward of the Tsumaki, was granted the samurai privilege of a surname and sword, and acted as Daikan, or district intendant, for Kani and Toki. The reception wing, the gatehouse and a middle gate are credited to his time; the Agency for Cultural Affairs independently dates the reception wing to 1850.

The estate did not pass through the Meiji era intact. When the household's finances were put in order, the reception wing was sold and carried off, then later bought back and rejoined to the main house. The sources disagree on the dates, a question taken up on the reception wing's own page. The storehouse, built in the first years of Meiji, is the youngest of the five.

How the Five Buildings Sit

The plot faces west onto an old road. The gatehouse, a Nagayamon, stands a little back from that road on a retaining wall of rough fieldstone laid in the Nozurazumi manner. Its ridge runs some 20 metres, with the gate opening set toward the south end, so the entire west frontage reads as one long, weighty façade.

Inside the gate, at the rear of the plot, the main house faces south. Its western half is a broad Doma, the earth-floored work area of a farmhouse, and the storehouse sits directly behind it on an east-west axis. The reception wing is joined to the main house at its southeast corner and runs north-south, with a corridor and an open veranda along its garden side. The tea house stands on its own in the northwest corner, and a middle gate projects from the main house.

The five were not listed for the same reason. Their registration numbers run consecutively, 21-256 through 21-260, yet the main house and the reception wing were registered as models of form, while the tea house, storehouse and gatehouse were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The first two were judged on their architecture; the other three on the part they play in the whole.

That whole is the point. A working farmhouse, formal rooms for guests, a tea room, a rice store and a front gate survive together on one plot, and together they show how a leading household in a late Edo village in Mino province arranged its world.

Visiting and Getting There

The Isaji Family Residence is privately owned. As of September 2026 no regular public opening had been announced. The family's website has a contact form, and anyone hoping to see the buildings should ask there first rather than walk onto the property.

Judging from the layout, what can be seen from outside is mainly the stone wall and the long front of the gatehouse along the old road on the west. The main house, the reception wing, the storehouse and the tea house all lie inside the gate.

By car, leave the Tōkai-Kanjō Expressway at Kani-Mitake Interchange and head about 800 metres east to the Furuyashiki intersection, turn right, then take the lane immediately on the left. By public transport, Mitake Station, terminus of the Meitetsu Hiromi Line, is roughly 5 minutes away by taxi. No parking information is published, so check this when arranging a visit.