Mizuno Family Residence (Gujo)

About the Mizuno Family Residence (Gujo)

The Mizuno Family Residence (水野家住宅, Mizuno-ke Jūtaku) in Shinmachi, Hachiman-cho, Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, is a merchant townhouse whose Taisho-era main house and Meiji-era storehouse were entered on Japan's list of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2007.

One point of confusion is worth clearing up first. Gifu Prefecture has a second registered building with exactly the same name, the Mizuno Family Residence Main House in Kawashima Matsubara-cho, Kakamigahara. That one is a 1928 farmhouse on the plains to the south and belongs to a different family. This page covers the pair of buildings in Gujo Hachiman.

A Townhouse on Shinmachi Street

Gujo Hachiman took shape in the early Edo period as a castle town hemmed in by mountains and rivers, and its street plan has survived largely intact. Shinmachi is one of the streets of the old merchant quarter, and the Mizuno Family Residence sits on a deep, narrow plot that runs back from it, the typical shape of a Japanese townhouse lot.

The main house faces the street, and the storehouse stands right beside it to the east. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the storehouse front was built with its eaves level with those of the main house, so the two read as a single frontage. Both buildings also raise an Udatsu, the small roofed firewall that projects above the roofline. Seen from across the street, a Meiji storehouse and a Taisho house several decades younger present one continuous face to the town.

The Mizunos were not registered alone. On the same day, October 2, 2007, the main house and storehouse of the Naoi Family Residence next door at Shinmachi 924 and the Echizen-ya shop-house at Shinmachi 926 were registered as well. With the three lot numbers running 924, 925 and 926, it is clear the listing was meant to protect a stretch of the Shinmachi streetscape rather than a single house.

The Two Buildings and Their Registration

The main house and storehouse were registered together on October 2, 2007, in the 56th round of registrations, with public notice issued on October 22. Their registration numbers are 21-0150 and 21-0151, and both qualified under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The national database gives the following dates and construction.

• Main house (21-0150): Taisho period (1912 to 1925), extended in the mid-Showa period; two stories, timber frame, sheet-metal roof, building area 165 square meters
• Storehouse (21-0151): Meiji period (1868 to 1911); two stories, earthen-walled Dozo-zukuri construction, sheet-metal roof, building area 18 square meters

The storehouse is the older of the pair. The agency singles out the udatsu on the main house as unusual for this area, and the two firewalls rising above the street are what give the Mizuno Family Residence its profile. Each building has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting the Mizuno Family Residence

The Mizuno Family Residence is not open to the public. We found no notice of interior viewings or open days (checked October 2, 2026), and the national database does not list an owner. Please stay off the property and view the facades from Shinmachi street. There are no published rules on photography, so keep to pictures of the exterior from the street and avoid blocking traffic or disturbing the neighbors.

By rail, take the Nagaragawa Railway to Gujo-Hachiman Station and change to the Red Route of the Mame Bus, Gujo City's community bus, getting off at Shinmachi. According to the city timetable, the Red Route leaves the station at 15 minutes past each hour and reaches Shinmachi seven minutes later. Buses run from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, and from 9:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Sundays and national holidays. A ride costs 100 yen and a one-day pass 200 yen (checked October 2, 2026). The bus does not run from December 30 to January 3.