Katayama Family Residence

A Village Headman's Silk-Farming Homestead

The Katayama Family Residence (片山家住宅, Katayama-ke Jūtaku) is the homestead of the former headman family of Tameike village in Nitta Tameikecho, Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, where six buildings centred on a main house and gatehouse of around 1873 were listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004.

Ota City describes the Katayamas as the family that served as nanushi, the hereditary village headman, of Tameike. When Tameike joined with three neighbouring villages, Kaminaka, Gon'emon and Ō, in 1880 (Meiji 13), Katayama Yoichirō was chosen as kochō, the head of the new joint administration, and its office was set up in the Katayama home. The household that had run village affairs under the shoguns simply carried on doing so under the new Meiji state.

Six structures are listed: the main house, a nagayamon gatehouse, a north storehouse, a south storehouse, a privy and a well house. Walk in through the gatehouse on the south, past the well, to the house; round the east side lies the privy, and behind, two storehouses. What makes the Katayama Family Residence unusual is how complete it is. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out even the privy and the well house as evidence of how a prosperous farming family arranged its homestead, so the place can be read as a whole rather than as a single fine house.

Three Phases of Building

Lined up by the dates in the national database, the buildings of the Katayama Family Residence fall into three groups.

• Main house and nagayamon gatehouse: around 1873 (Meiji 6)
• North and south storehouses: around 1885 (Meiji 18)
• Privy and well house: the early Taisho era, shortly after 1912

The family first built its home and the gatehouse that gives the property its public face. Roughly a dozen years later came two storehouses at the back, one for tools and one for clothing. The joint village office arrived in 1880, between those two campaigns.

The privy and the well house followed in the early Taisho era. Both stand on Yabuzuka stone, which suggests the outdoor amenities may have been put in together. Ota City's own description places these two a little more loosely, between the end of the Meiji era and the Taisho era, so the two sources frame the period slightly differently.

Walking the Homestead

The Agency's notes on each building are precise about where it stands. Pieced together, they describe a route from the south entrance inward.

Centre of the south edge: the gatehouse

The nagayamon, 10 ken long, fills the middle of the southern boundary. It has two gateways. The path to the earth-floored entrance of the main house runs from the eastern one, while the westernmost gateway is normally kept shut.

East of the path: the well house

Halfway along the path from the gate to the main house, on the east side, is the well house. Walking in from the gate, it is on your right.

Centre of the plot: the main house

The main house stands roughly in the middle of the plot, facing south. Its east end is the working side, with the earth-floored area, and the front carries a formal shikidai entrance.

East of the house: the privy

The privy stands east of the main house, facing west, on the working side of the home.

North-west: the two storehouses

The north storehouse occupies the north-west corner of the plot with its ridge running east to west. The south storehouse stands just south of it, north-west of the main house, with its ridge running north to south. The Agency describes the pair as framing the back garden behind the house.

The layout divides neatly by purpose: the south front for guests, via the gatehouse and the formal entrance; the east side for daily work, with the earth floor, the well and the privy; and the north-west back for storing the family's goods. That reading is ours, built from the recorded positions, not something stated in family records.

A Silk Farmer's Home

Gunma was one of Japan's great silk-producing regions, and the Agency calls the main house a fine example of an upper-tier sericulture farmhouse. Along the centre of its roof runs a kebudashi, a raised secondary roof 6 ken long. On silk farms, vents of this kind typically drew air through upper floors where silkworms were reared.

The silkworms reached the gate too. Between the two gateways of the nagayamon is a room called the kaikoya, the silkworm room. When even the gatehouse makes space for silkworms, it is a good sign of how much silk mattered to this household's living.

What Was Registered

The six buildings of the Katayama Family Residence entered the national register in the 40th round of registrations, dated February 17, 2004, with official notice published on March 4, 2004. They hold consecutive registration numbers 10-0112 through 10-0117. The main house was listed for being a model of its type in form and design; the other five for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

• Main house (10-0112): wooden, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 304 square metres
• Nagayamon gatehouse (10-0113): wooden, single storey, tiled roof, building area 109 square metres
• North storehouse (10-0114): dozo-zukuri plastered storehouse, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 41 square metres
• South storehouse (10-0115): dozo-zukuri plastered storehouse, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 23 square metres
• Lower privy (10-0116): dozo-zukuri, single storey, tiled roof, building area 4.4 square metres
• Well house (10-0117): wooden, single storey, tiled roof, building area 3.9 square metres

Only the main house was registered as a model of form, recognition of how fully it embodies the house type of a well-off silk-farming family. The other five were registered as part of the setting the main house creates.

One discrepancy is worth flagging. Ota City's page gives the registration date as January 29, 2003 (Heisei 15), while both the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and Cultural Heritage Online give February 17, 2004. We follow the Agency's database.

Visiting and Getting There

The Katayama Family Residence is a private home. As of October 2026 we found no announcement of public openings or guided visits, and neither the grounds nor the interiors are open. If you look at the buildings from outside, please stay off the property and respect the residents' privacy. Enquiries about the property as a cultural asset go to the Cultural Properties Division of the Ota City Board of Education (tel. 0276-20-7090).

The photographs on each building's entry in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database are the most reliable way to see all six structures.

Nitta Tameikecho lies in what was Nitta Town until its merger into Ota City in March 2005. It is well away from the railway: about 4.5 kilometres south-east of Kunisada Station on the JR Ryomo Line in a straight line, and about 5.1 kilometres south-west of Yabuzuka Station on the Tobu Kiryu Line. Both figures are estimates from map positions; no official access directions have been published.

About the Name

Katayama Family Residence is read Katayama-ke Jūtaku, and the district name Nitta Tameikecho is read Nitta Tameike-chō. In the national database each building is registered under the residence name followed by its own, for example 片山家住宅主屋 (Main House) and 片山家住宅井戸屋 (Well House). The similarly named Former Katayama Family Residence in Nariwa, Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, belongs to a different family and is a separate cultural property.