Ogino Family Residence (Shimonita)

About the Ogino Family Residence (Shimonita)

The Ogino Family Residence (荻野家住宅, Ogino-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant household's compound in the Nakamachi district of Shimonita, Gunma Prefecture, and its seven structures, from a storehouse of 1891 to a main house and firewall of about 1924, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 7, 2009. On a long, narrow plot facing east onto a branch route of the old Nakasendo highway stand a house, a shop storehouse, four other storehouses and outbuildings, and a brick firewall.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs files all seven under commerce, and a shop storehouse set right on the street is the classic front of a family that traded along a highway. What the Ogino family actually sold is not recorded in the public sources we checked.

Other properties share the name. There is an Ogino Family Residence in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, another in the old post town of Kumagawa in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture, and a Former Ogino Family Residence in Machida, Tokyo. They belong to unrelated families. This page covers the seven structures in Shimonita.

How the Ogino Family Residence Is Laid Out

The Ogino Family Residence occupies a strip of land that runs deep to the west from the street. Read together, the Agency's descriptions place the seven structures like this.

• On the street side to the east stand the main house and the shop storehouse. The main house turns its gable end to the street (Tsumairi), while the shop storehouse runs its ridge parallel to it (Hirairi), so two buildings set at right angles make up the frontage.
• The firewall runs along the north edge of the plot, built hard against the main house. It is brick and 18 meters long in all.
• West of the main house, in the middle of the plot, is the North Storehouse, with the South Storehouse lined up just south of it on the same east-west axis.
• The Utility Storehouse and Row House sit on the south boundary, presenting a run of white walls to a lane on that side (殿小路).
• The New Storehouse stands apart at the far west end, facing an old road behind the property across a channel called the West Moat (西堀).

Shop and house face the street, the storehouses sit behind them, and the row house and New Storehouse finish the property on the lane and moat sides. The Ogino Family Residence was given a tidy outer face on the south and west, not only on its street front.

The Order of Building

The seven structures went up over several decades. Using the Agency's dates, the South Storehouse came first in 1891, followed by the North Storehouse in 1905, the shop storehouse and the utility storehouse and row house in the late Meiji era, the main house and firewall in about 1924, and the New Storehouse in the early Showa era.

The shop storehouse was altered in the Taisho era and again around 1970, and the utility storehouse and row house were altered in the Taisho era. Around 1950 the firewall was extended eastward in reinforced concrete. The present main house is one of the later buildings, and the firewall that adjoins it is dated to the same years, though the sources do not say whether the two were planned as a pair.

The roof framing of the storehouses shows the change of era as well. The South Storehouse of 1891 carries its ridge on struts standing on a heavy beam, the traditional method, while the North Storehouse of 1905 and the New Storehouse use Truss framing.

Registration of the Ogino Family Residence

All seven entered the register in the 64th round on August 7, 2009, with the official notice on August 25, 2009. Their numbers run consecutively from 10-0270 for the main house to 10-0276 for the firewall, and each was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

• Ogino Family Residence Main House: two-story timber, building area 60 square meters (10-0270)
• Ogino Family Residence Shop Storehouse: two-story Dozo-zukuri, building area 46 square meters (10-0271)
• Ogino Family Residence North Storehouse: two-story dozo-zukuri, building area 54 square meters (10-0272)
• Ogino Family Residence South Storehouse: two-story dozo-zukuri, building area 18 square meters (10-0273)
• Ogino Family Residence Utility Storehouse and Row House: timber, partly two-story and partly single-story, building area 46 square meters (10-0274)
• Ogino Family Residence New Storehouse: two-story dozo-zukuri, building area 45 square meters (10-0275)
• Ogino Family Residence Firewall: brick with a reinforced concrete section, 18 meters long (10-0276)

The Agency singles out the solid, walled look the utility storehouse and row house give the lane, the way the New Storehouse tidies the back of the plot, and the firewall as a reminder of the great fires this area has suffered. The registration rewards how the compound as a whole shapes the townscape more than any single building.

Visiting the Ogino Family Residence

The Ogino Family Residence is a private home, and the owner field in the Agency's database is blank. As of October 2026 we found no notice of public openings. The grounds and buildings cannot be entered.

From outside you can see mainly the main house and shop storehouse on the street and the firewall standing at the north side of the house. The white walls of the utility storehouse and row house are probably visible from the lane to the south, though we have not confirmed this on site. Please take photos only from the public road and keep clear of the residents and of passing traffic.

The nearest station is Shimonita Station, the terminus of the Joshin Electric Railway's Joshin Line. From there the Ogino Family Residence is about 460 meters to the west by road, a walk of roughly 6 minutes. The street in front of the house is Gunma Prefectural Route Shimonita-Ueno.

Names and Readings

The name is read Ogino-ke Jūtaku. The seven structures are the shuoku (main house), misegura (shop storehouse), kitagura (North Storehouse), minamigura (South Storehouse), monookigura oyobi nagaya (Utility Storehouse and Row House), shingura (New Storehouse) and bōkaheki (Firewall). A misegura is a shop built in fireproof storehouse construction, a type also covered under Misegura.