Sanada Family Residence Main House

A Taishō Townhouse Facing the Old Highway

The Sanada Family Residence Main House (眞田家住宅主屋, Sanada-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is a street-front merchant house on the old Sanyo Road in Higashimachi, Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, built between 1912 and 1918 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) on 4 February 2021. It is the oldest building in the Sanada compound and the only one that faces the street.

The house rises two storeys under a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof set parallel to the road, the Hirairi arrangement typical of Japanese townhouses. The roof is tiled, with some sections in copper. On the ground floor, projecting wooden lattices (degōshi) line the frontage; upstairs, the walls are pierced by mushiko-mado, small plastered slat windows whose name compares them to insect cages. Everything is finished in black plaster. At the northern end of the east side, which is the right-hand corner as you face the house, a porch with its own Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof marks the entrance. A single-storey section extends to the rear, bringing the building area to 250 square meters.

Inside, according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Sanada Family Residence Main House follows the classic merchant layout: an earth-floored passage, or Doma, runs front to back along the west side, and raised tatami rooms line up to the east. Verandas wrap the east and south sides and look onto the garden, beyond which stand the reception buildings added in 1928.

Why It Was Registered

The main house was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The old Sanyo Road cuts east to west through Mihara, and this long black facade gives that stretch of street much of its weight. The national Council for Cultural Affairs notes that the Sanada were merchants for generations and, from the modern era, traded in tatami facing mats and medicinal ingredients.

The Sanada Family Residence Main House has been altered: it was remodelled in 1963 and again in 2002. Even so, the paired passage and raised rooms, and the lattice-and-slat street elevation, still read clearly as a townhouse of the early Taishō years. The reception wing, guest house and tea house behind it were built for entertaining; this was the working house of the business and the household, and it sets the starting date for the whole compound.

What to Look For

Cross the street and take in the Sanada Family Residence Main House as a whole. The two floors treat their openings quite differently. The ground-floor lattices push out toward the road and give the old shopfront some depth, while the upstairs windows are small and sunk into the wall, barely more than texture. Where the house wanted light and trade, it opened up; where it wanted security, it closed.

Black plaster swallows the light at midday. Late in the afternoon, with the sun low, faint trowel marks start to show.

Then look right, to the porch. The long gable runs straight along the street until, at the eastern end, a small hip-and-gable roof turns at an angle and announces the guest entrance. Just beside it stands the 1928 gate, so the house's formal approach gathers at this one corner.

Visiting

The Sanada Family Residence Main House is private and its interior is not open; as of September 2026 we found no public opening days or booking contact. What you can see is the street front, which faces the old Sanyo Road directly, so the far side of the road gives a clear view of the whole elevation. The garden-side verandas are not visible from the street.

We could not confirm any rules on photography, but people come and go here, so please keep cameras away from windows and lattices. Directions and general visiting notes are on the Sanada Family Residence page.