Shimizu Family Residence Main House

A Silk Farmer's House of 1931

The Shimizu Family Residence Main House (清水家住宅主屋) is the main house of a silkworm-raising farm of 1931 in Sohara Ibukicho, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 8, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 198 square metres; registration number 21-0169.

A Big House with Its Back to the Street

The Shimizu Family Residence Main House stands in the north-west corner of a plot lying south of the street, and faces south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its front looks inward across its own grounds, so the side that meets the street is the back of the house.

It measures 19 metres by 9.7 metres, a 2-storey timber building under a gabled roof of pantiles, with lean-to eaves (Geya) running all the way round (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The result is a large gable with a second, lower roof wrapped around its base.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as a model of design. Its description identifies the building as a 2-storey silk farmhouse and points to the formal room with alcove and writing desk; together they show a farm of the early Showa era that combined a large working house for sericulture with a properly appointed room for guests.

Kakamigahara City also lists it among its Registered Tangible Cultural Properties under registration number 21-0169, registered on January 8, 2009.

An Earth-Floored Work Area and Six Rooms

Inside, the eastern part is a beaten-earth floor, and to the west the living rooms are laid out in two rows of three, six rooms in all (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The room for the family altar holds a Buddhist altar and has a Tokonoma alcove with a built-in writing desk (Tsukeshoin), making it a fine formal tatami room. Work space and reception space are split cleanly east and west under one roof.

The Agency says nothing about how the upper floor was used. In 2-storey silk farmhouses generally, the upper floor was often given over to rearing silkworms.

What to Look For

From outside, the clearest feature is the long gable, 19 metres from end to end, with the lean-to eaves forming a lower tier around it. Built in 1931, the house shows in that roofline how large a silk farm in rural Kakamigahara could be.

Inside, the key points would be the split between the earth floor to the east and the six rooms to the west, and the alcove and writing desk in the altar room. There is no information on interior access, so what can be seen is the exterior only.

Visiting

The Shimizu Family Residence Main House appears to be a private home, and as of October 2026 no information on public opening or interior visits could be found; the owner field in the Agency database is blank. If you go, view it from the street and do not enter the grounds. There is no official guidance on photography either.

Sohara Ibukicho lies about 2.3 kilometres due north of Rokken Station on the Meitetsu Kakamigahara Line, and about 2.2 kilometres north-north-west of Sohara Station on the JR Takayama Line (straight-line estimates from map coordinates).