Kawai Family Residence (Gujo)

About the Kawai Family Residence in Gujo

The Kawai Family Residence (河合家住宅, Kawai-ke Jūtaku) is a late Edo-period farmhouse compound in Ichishima, Hachiman-cho, Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, whose main house of 1805 and its east and west storehouses became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 28, 2000. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Kawai family served as Shōya, the hereditary village headmen of the district.

The three buildings carry clear and separate dates. The main house was built in 1805, the east storehouse in 1824 and the west storehouse in 1885, so 80 years separate the oldest from the newest. The Kawai Family Residence was not laid out in one campaign; storehouses were added as the generations went by.

The reading of the name is not quite settled. The Agency's database and Cultural Heritage Online give it as "Kawai-ke", while the Gifu Prefecture list of registered buildings reads it "Kawaai-ke". This site follows the Agency and uses Kawai.

A Main House Flanked by Two Storehouses

Read together, the Agency's descriptions place the main house at the center, facing south, with one storehouse standing forward of it on each side.

• The main house is a 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a footprint of 291 square meters. It measures about 12.5 ken by 6.5 ken, roughly 23 by 12 meters. The east end is an earth-floored Doma, a stable projects from the south front, and the upper floor was left open for raising silkworms.
• The east storehouse stands southeast of the main house, between the privy and a row building. It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a tiled Okiyane roof and a footprint of 38 square meters.
• The west storehouse stands southwest of the main house beside the miso storehouse. It is also a 2-storey storehouse with a tiled okiyane roof, 36 square meters in footprint, and was once roofed with wooden boards.

The privy, the row building and the miso storehouse mentioned in the descriptions are not part of the registration. What was registered is the frame of the compound: the house and the two storehouses that bracket its front yard. Both storehouses have a Kuramae porch made by extending an eave from the long side. The east storehouse keeps a plain board-clad base, while the west storehouse has a Namako-kabe lattice of tiles on its east face and a decorated lintel, a difference the Agency points out directly.

All three were registered on the same day under the consecutive numbers 21-0027 to 21-0029, and all three were judged to contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The value lies in the headman's compound surviving as a set of house and storehouses.

Where the Kawai Family Residence Stands

Ichishima is a rural district of Hachiman-cho lying northeast of the old castle town of Gujo Hachiman. From Gujo-Hachiman Station on the Nagaragawa Railway, the route follows National Route 472 toward Meiho and then turns onto a side road, about 9 kilometers in all.

An upper floor opened for silkworms and a stable built onto the front mark this as the house of a family that farmed and raised silkworms, not a town merchant. The Kawai Family Residence shows a side of Gujo quite different from the townhouses of the castle town.

Visiting the Kawai Family Residence

The Kawai Family Residence is not open to the public, and none of the three buildings can be entered. No open days or special viewings were found in the sources checked. The owner field in the Agency's database is blank, and the compound should be treated as a private home: please do not walk onto the grounds.

Viewing is limited to the exterior from the public road. Take photographs from the road and keep clear of residents and traffic.

The house is far from any station, so a car is the practical way to come. Allow about 15 minutes for the roughly 9 kilometers from Gujo-Hachiman Station via Route 472. The local roads are narrow; do not leave a car parked on the roadside while you look. If you plan to use a local bus, check stops and timetables with Gujo City before setting out.