Ito Family Residence Main House

A Meiji-Era House on a Raised Stone Base

The Ito Family Residence Main House (伊藤家住宅主屋) is a two-storey timber family house of 1880 in Kaizu City, Gifu Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 7, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 271 square metres, built in 1880 and renovated in 2006; registration number 21-0155.

It stands in the middle of a property on the west side of the Ibi River, facing south, under a hipped roof laid with pantiles (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

A Six-Room Plan with Tatami Corridors

The living quarters of the Ito Family Residence Main House follow a six-room plan (Rokumadori), with corridors projecting along the front and the back (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kaizu City notes a 10-mat reception room on the ground floor with a Tokonoma alcove, and a tatami-floored corridor running along its south side.

The city's cultural property map describes a house that mixes features of a samurai residence with those of a farmhouse, with tatami corridors wrapped around the reception room.

Why It Was Registered

The Ito Family Residence Main House was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency sees a local trait in the base built up high against floods, and rates it a large house typical of its district.

Kaizu City explains that the site was first raised with earth against floods from the Kiso Three Rivers, the Kiso, Nagara and Ibi. A stone platform was then built on top, and foundation stones set on it carry the house. The city's map calls it a Western-style stone base.

What to Look For

Start with the stone base that lifts the Ito Family Residence Main House off the ground (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Kaizu City). A second tier of stone on top of raised earth shows how a household in this low land near the rivers protected itself.

Kaizu City's photographs show the stone steps up to the base and the 2 tiers of hipped roof, one above the other.

Visiting

The Ito Family Residence Main House is a private home. Kaizu City's cultural property map marks it as closed to visitors and leaves its location off the map.

The photographs on Kaizu City's page of registered cultural properties and on the map are the way to see it. Please do not try to find the house or enter the grounds.