Kobayashi Family Residence (Former Kotake Textile Co., Ltd.)

A Weaving Mill and a Family Home on One Lot

The Kobayashi Family Residence (Former Kotake Textile Co., Ltd.) (小林家住宅（旧小武織物有限会社）) is a textile mill and family home in Hirosawa-cho, Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, founded as a weaving business in 1935; six of its structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on October 7, 2014. The name is read Kobayashi-ke jūtaku (kyū Kotake orimono yūgen-gaisha). Some databases romanize the company name as "Kobu," but the official reading of 小武 is Kotake.

Central Kiryu lies north of the Watarase River. This property is on the south bank, on the lowest of the river terraces below the city center. According to the Kiryu City Board of Education, the property keeps a gabled main house, a run of gabled weaving sheds, and a stone wall and board fence that doubled as flood defenses, all still standing together.

Material published by the Kiryu Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Kobayashi Takeichirō started the business in 1935 and incorporated it as Kotake Textile Co., Ltd. in 1959. The firm wove mainly fukuro-obi, the double-layered sashes worn with formal kimono, and buyers were shown the obi laid out across the tatami rooms of the house. It later moved into lace, then stopped weaving altogether in 1976. Takeichirō also served on the Kiryu city council and as a vice president of the chamber.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

A wall of rounded river stones wraps the south and west sides of the Kobayashi Family Residence, and a board fence runs along the top of the southern stretch. The gate opens toward the east end of the south side, where wall and fence both jog inward. Just inside, Warehouse No. 2 stands to the east and Warehouse No. 1 faces it across the entrance, both perched on the stone wall.

The main house occupies the west side of the lot and faces east. Its northern half is an earth-floored Doma that runs straight into the factory, which extends eastward as four parallel gabled sheds, each ridge running north to south. Kiryu City counts five gabled sheds in all, one of them left out of the registration; the chamber's account mentions a shed added in 1967, and the workers' dormitory at the west end of the fence is not registered either.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house to around 1931, the factory to 1948 with alterations in 1954, the stone wall and fence to around 1953, Warehouse No. 1 to 1961 and Warehouse No. 2 to 1962. Read on the ground, the plan shows a household at the core, with production space added as the business grew.

The River and the Flood Wall

Sitting on low ground beside the Watarase shaped the Kobayashi Family Residence as much as the loom did. The national database describes the stone wall as built after typhoon flooding, to protect both the factory and the house. The chamber's account names the storm as Typhoon Kathleen, which devastated the Watarase basin in September 1947.

The wall runs 82 metres in total, and the fence on top of it 49 metres. Because both turn together at the gate, the south face of the property reads from the street as a single two-tier frontage of stone below and timber above. The two warehouses were built on this same wall.

The Six Registered Structures

All six structures of the Kobayashi Family Residence (Former Kotake Textile Co., Ltd.) were entered in the 78th round of registration on October 7, 2014, under consecutive numbers 10-0313 to 10-0318. Each was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

• Main House (10-0313): timber, single storey with a partial 2-storey section, building area 332 square metres
• Factory (10-0314): timber, single storey, building area 276 square metres
• Warehouse No. 1 (10-0315): concrete block, single storey, building area 21 square metres
• Warehouse No. 2 (10-0316): concrete block, single storey, building area 19 square metres
• Stone Wall (10-0317): stone, 82 metres long in total
• Fence (10-0318): timber with a tiled coping, 49 metres long in total

Visitors to Kiryu usually picture its weaving mills under sawtooth roofs. The factory here uses plain gables instead, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs cites it as an example of the city's industrial architecture for that reason. Seen as a set, the six structures show a small family mill complete: house, work floor, storage and flood defense on a single lot.

Visiting and Getting There

The Kobayashi Family Residence is privately owned and is not run as a public site. No open days or guided viewings could be found as of September 2026. Visitors can only look at the stone wall, the fence and the gabled roofs behind them from outside the property. Because it is a private home, avoid lingering at the gate or pointing a camera into the grounds for long.

The address is Hirosawa-cho 5-chome in Kiryu City, about 4 kilometres in a straight line southeast of JR Kiryu Station on the Ryomo Line, on the far side of the Watarase River. The distance is too far for a comfortable walk from the station, so a car or taxi is the practical choice. There is no visitor parking.