Nobuoka Family Residence

A Headman’s Compound on the Old Highway

The Nobuoka Family Residence (信岡家住宅, Nobuoka-ke Jūtaku) is the compound of an old family on the former Fukuyama–Fuchu highway in Tode, Shin’ichi-cho, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, where eight buildings dating from the west storehouse of 1808 to an early Showa teahouse were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 18 April 2008.

According to the Fukuyama Tourism and Convention Association, the Nobuoka served for generations as village headmen (Shōya) during the Edo period. The family were also devout followers of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism: the reception wing of the main house was built to hold a Buddhist altar presented by the Honganji, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the house as a record of how an influential Shin Buddhist household lived in the provinces.

The eight registered structures are the main house, the east and west storehouses, a charcoal shed, a teahouse with its waiting bench, a well house, a middle gate with its wall, and a nagayamon gate along the road. Together they cover what a headman’s household needed to live, farm and receive guests, and their dates run from the late Edo period into the early Showa years.

Today the nagayamon gate and the teahouse are used as the Nobuoka Flat Museum, a venue for exhibitions and classes.

How the Compound Grew

Read in order, the dates recorded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs show a compound assembled over roughly a century and a half.

• West storehouse: 1808 (Bunka 5)
• Main house and east storehouse: 1826 (Bunsei 9)
• Charcoal shed: late Edo period, altered in the early Showa period
• Middle gate and wall: late Edo period
• Well house: 1868 (Keio 4)
• Nagayamon gate: early Meiji period
• Teahouse and waiting bench: early Showa period, moved here around 1955

The west storehouse is the oldest building, eighteen years older than the main house. The main house and the east storehouse share the same year, so the family’s living quarters and its rice store went up together. The well house is dated to Keio 4, the year that became Meiji 1 in its ninth month.

According to tradition, the teahouse stands where an onari zashiki once stood: a formal room kept for visits by a lord or other high-ranking guest. When the teahouse was moved onto the site around 1955, the compound’s most formal space for guests passed from an Edo-period reception room to a twentieth-century tea room.

Reading the Layout

The plot faces the old highway to the south. The Agency’s descriptions locate each building in relation to the main house.

On the road: the nagayamon gate

The nagayamon gate runs east to west along the front of the compound, south of the main house. At 31 metres long and two storeys high, it is the building travellers on the highway see first. The passage through it is set toward the western end.

Toward the back: the main house

The main house stands in the northern part of the plot with its long side facing the road. Its eastern end is an earth-floored work area, its western end raised living rooms, and a reception wing holding the family altar extends further west.

West of the main house: storehouse, teahouse and gate

The west storehouse stands to the west. The teahouse sits south of the reception wing with its waiting bench to its west, and the middle gate, southeast of the teahouse, closes off the tea garden with short runs of wall to the north and south.

East of the main house: storehouse, shed and well

The east storehouse stands southeast of the main house and carries the east gate at its southeastern corner. The charcoal shed lies east of the main house and north of the east storehouse, and the well house is to the southeast.

The work buildings, the storehouse, shed and well, cluster on the east side next to the earth-floored kitchen, while the teahouse and its formal gate sit on the west next to the reception rooms. The plan can be read as a working side and a guest side divided by the main house.

What Was Registered

All eight structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property (buildings) on 18 April 2008, in the 59th round of registrations, with official notice on 7 May of the same year. They carry consecutive registration numbers from 34-0085 to 34-0092.

Three different criteria apply. The main house and the teahouse with waiting bench were listed as models of design; the east storehouse, the west storehouse and the well house as structures that would be difficult to reproduce; and the charcoal shed, the middle gate with wall and the nagayamon gate for their contribution to the historic landscape.

• Main house (34-0085): timber, single storey, tiled roof, building area 346 square metres
• East storehouse (34-0086): two-storey earthen storehouse, tiled roof, building area 66 square metres, with east gate
• West storehouse (34-0087): two-storey earthen storehouse, tiled roof, building area 66 square metres
• Charcoal shed (34-0088): timber, single storey, tiled roof, building area 27 square metres, with wall
• Teahouse and waiting bench (34-0089): teahouse of timber, single storey, thatched roof (temporarily covered in copper), building area 18 square metres; waiting bench of timber with copper roof, 3.5 square metres
• Well house (34-0090): timber, tiled roof, 5.6 square metres
• Middle gate and wall (34-0091): gate of timber with tiled roof, 1.5 metres wide; wall of timber with tiled roof, 10 metres long
• Nagayamon gate (34-0092): timber, two storeys, tiled roof, building area 137 square metres

Visiting and Getting There

The Nobuoka Family Residence is privately owned by Nobuoka Jisho Co., Ltd. and is not open on a regular basis. The Fukuyama Tourism and Convention Association lists it as open only during events, which are held irregularly, and some events charge admission.

Those events take place at the Nobuoka Flat Museum in the nagayamon gate and the teahouse. The museum opens only when an event or class is on; its programme has included reading circles for old documents and the Man’yoshu, tea ceremony in the chair-seated ryurei style, and kintsugi and lacquer classes. Dates are posted on the museum website under “催物／NEWs” and on Instagram (nobuoka_flat).

As of October 2026 we found no notice of public access to the main house, the storehouses or the other buildings, and visitors should not expect to enter the grounds on days without an event. The front of the nagayamon gate can be seen from the road. The association lists a contact number, 0847-51-2366.

The nearest station is Tode on the JR Fukuen Line, about a five-minute walk away according to the association, which also notes that parking is available.

About the Name

Nobuoka-ke Jūtaku means simply “the Nobuoka family house.” In the national database each building is listed under the family name followed by the building name, as in 信岡家住宅主屋 (Nobuoka-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) for the main house. The charcoal shed is sumigoya, the well house idoyakata and the gate Nagayamon. The district names are read Shin’ichi-cho and Tode.