Yabashi Family Residence

A Merchant Estate on the Nakasendō

The Yabashi Family Residence (矢橋家住宅, Yabashi-ke Jūtaku) is a historic estate on the old Nakasendō highway in Akasaka, Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture, whose eight buildings, dating from 1805 to around 1868, were entered together on Japan's national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 1997.

Akasaka was a post town on the Nakasendō, the inland route between Edo and Kyoto. By 1843 some 292 townhouses lined its main street, and in 1861, when Princess Kazunomiya passed through on her way to marry the shogun, the town rebuilt and refreshed houses along her route in a burst of work still remembered locally as the "bridal renovations." The Yabashi Family Residence stands at the heart of that old post town, on the south side of the highway with its front turned north to the road. Ogaki City lists it as Landscape Heritage No. 62, citing the way it keeps the feel of the town centre alive, and counts it among the buildings that hold together the streetscape of Akasaka-juku.

Behind the town rises Kinshōzan, a hill of limestone and marble. In 1901 a marble business was founded in Akasaka under the name of Yabashi Ryōkichi to cut and ship that stone as a building material, so the Yabashi name belongs to the town's industrial story as well as to its streetscape.

An Estate Built Up Over Six Decades

The eight buildings did not go up at once. Read in the order the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates them, they show the Yabashi Family Residence growing outward from the street.

• 1805 (Bunka 2): the Retirement House, or Chikusetsuro, the oldest building on the property, set at the west end of the frontage
• 1833 (Tenpō 4): the Main House, a large townhouse facing the highway with a footprint of 284 square metres
• Tenpō era (1830 to 1844): the East and Middle Storehouses, thought to be contemporary with the Main House
• Kaei era (1848 to 1854): the Shoin reception wing, called Kōotei, and the Front Gate, believed to date from the same years
• Early Meiji (around 1868): the Tea House, attached to the Shoin, and the West Storehouse, the largest of the three storehouses

From the street, the frontage reads west to east as Retirement House, Front Gate, Main House. The gate opens between the two and leads to the formal entrance of the Shoin, which adjoins the Main House on its west side as a pair of connected reception rooms. The Tea House extends from the Shoin's southeast corner. Behind the Main House, the Middle Storehouse turns its doorway toward the living quarters, and together with the East and West Storehouses it closes off the rear of the lot.

A black-plastered, finely latticed townhouse at the front, with reception rooms, a tea house and fireproof storehouses layered behind it: this is the shape a prosperous highway household gave its property over several generations. In describing the gate and the east storehouse, the Agency singles them out as elements that express the character of a large estate. The value of the Yabashi Family Residence lies as much in the complete set as in any single building.

How the Eight Buildings Were Registered

All eight buildings were registered on 15 July 1997, in the fourth round of registrations under a system Japan had introduced only in 1996. Their numbers run from 21-0002 to 21-0009, the prefix 21 standing for Gifu, which places the Yabashi Family Residence among the earliest groups of buildings registered anywhere in the prefecture.

Two different criteria were applied. The Main House, Front Gate, Tea House and the three storehouses were registered as buildings that serve as models of their type. The Retirement House and the Shoin were registered as buildings that would be difficult to reproduce, a judgment based on the quality of their materials, finishes and craftsmanship.

The Agency's database leaves the owner field blank for all eight buildings, and the owner's name has not been made public.

Visiting and Getting There

The Yabashi Family Residence is not open to the public. Ogaki City states this plainly in its landscape heritage listing, and there is no access to the interiors or the grounds. What a visitor can see is the street front, from the public road along the old Nakasendō.

In practice that means the facades of the Main House, the Front Gate and the Retirement House. The Shoin, the Tea House and the three storehouses sit behind the Main House and the boundary walls and are difficult to make out from outside. Please keep any photography to the public road, and avoid peering through the gate or lingering in front of the entrance.

The nearest station is Mino-Akasaka, the terminus of a short JR branch line from Ogaki, 2 stops away. Walk north from the station to the old highway, which marks the centre of the former post town; the Yabashi Family Residence is about 5 minutes on foot. Trains on the branch line are infrequent, so check the timetable before you set out.