Kojima Family Residence Main House

A 2-storey house facing south

The Kojima Family Residence Main House (小島家住宅主屋, Kojima-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) in Narukiyocho, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, is the principal dwelling of the Kojima household, a 2-storey timber house in the modern Japanese style built in the early Showa era; it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 28, 2010 (number 21-0184).

The Kojima Family Residence Main House stands toward the east of the plot, facing south. With a building area of 188 square metres, it is the largest of the five registered structures on the property.

A house with the same Japanese name in Ozanocho, also in Kakamigahara, was registered the same day as number 21-0181. It is a different building.

A hipped-gable roof over a grid of rooms

The roof is Irimoya-zukuri, hipped below and gabled above, laid with pantiles, and a lean-to Geya eave runs right round the house. Because the lower eave wraps the 2-storey block, the main roof and the skirt of tiles below it read as two calm horizontal layers.

Inside, a room called the hatabeya occupies the east end, and four rooms laid out in a grid, the Yomadori plan, stand toward the west, with an earth-floored Doma between them. The four-room grid is the classic farmhouse plan of rural Japan; here it is carried into a 2-storey modern house.

A 13-mat reception room and fine timber

The southwest corner holds a 13-mat Zashiki, fitted with an elegant formal alcove arrangement (Zashiki-kazari). South of the house lies the garden screened by the middle gate and garden wall, and the reception room sits on that side.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the Kojima main house as a modern Japanese-style home built of good timber and finished with care. It is also the only one of the five structures registered as a model of design; the other four were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting

The Kojima Family Residence Main House stands inside the front gate and outer wall, and no public opening has been announced (as of October 2026). The interior, including the reception room, cannot be visited, and the house is probably hard to see as a whole from the road.

How the property fits together, what can be seen from outside and how to get there are covered on the Kojima Family Residence (Narukiyo, Kakamigahara) page.