Umeda Family Residence Main House

An 1868 Townhouse in Unuma-juku

The Umeda Family Residence Main House (梅田家住宅主屋) is a gable-roofed townhouse of 1868 in Unuma Nishimachi, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, on the old Nakasendo highway, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 29, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is the main house of the Umeda household immediately west of the Myogaya property at lot 1-530, and is registered separately from it.

The Agency records a 2-storey timber building with a tile roof and a building area of 119 square metres; registration number 21-0106.

A Townhouse Front on the Highway

The Umeda Family Residence Main House faces north onto the old Nakasendo. Its gabled roof of interlocking pantiles runs parallel to the street, and lean-to roofs (Geya) are attached front and back to a main block 6 and a half ken across and 4 ken deep (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

On the ground floor the central entrance has an iron-barred window to the east and a wooden lattice window to the west, and the upper floor has lattice windows. Inside, an earth-floored Doma takes the east side, with an 8-mat reception room and a Buddhist altar room on the west (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Registered

The Agency describes the Umeda Family Residence Main House as a survival that keeps the atmosphere of the post town, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Umeda Family Residence Main House was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006.

Kakamigahara City notes that it keeps its eaves in line with the buildings on either side and retains the layout of a townhouse as first built; the city named it a Landscape Important Building on May 30, 2007.

What to Look For

The front of the Umeda Family Residence Main House changes material either side of the door, with iron bars to the east and wooden lattice to the west; the two are worth comparing from across the road.

Seen together with the Myogaya main house next door to the east, it shows a late-Edo townhouse and one of 1868 standing eave to eave on the same street.

Visiting

The Umeda Family Residence Main House is a private home and its interior is not open to the public (Kakamigahara City). It can be seen from the old Nakasendo.