Shunpukan Rai Family Residence (Takehara)

Home of Rai Shunpu in Takehara

The Shunpukan Rai Family Residence (春風館賴家住宅) is the house of the Confucian physician Rai Shunpu in Takehara-cho (Honmachi), Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, whose main house and gatehouse of 1855 and its back reception wing, household store and rice store of the Meiji and Taisho eras, five buildings in all, were designated an Important Cultural Property on December 19, 1988. It stands within the Takehara Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the main house as 15.4 metres by 12.7 metres, partly two-storeyed with stepped gables; the gatehouse dates from about 1855, the back wing from 1898, the rice store from 1888 and the household store from 1917. Takehara City lists it as privately owned.

The Uncle of Rai San'yo

According to the Agency, the Rai family of Takehara produced many Confucian scholars in the late Edo period, beginning with Rai San'yo, and the Shunpukan was built as the home of San'yo's uncle Rai Shunpu, a Confucian physician of the Aki domain.

Takehara City records that Shunpu (1753 to 1825) studied medicine and Confucianism in Osaka, returned home to practise, ran salt fields, taught local children and helped found the Takehara academy in 1793. The first house, built in 1781, burned in 1854, and the present buildings were rebuilt in 1855.

Why It Was Designated

The Shunpukan Rai Family Residence was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1988. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes its samurai-house layout, with a gatehouse on the street and the main house behind, its outbuildings and its gardens with stepping stones and stone basins before and behind the reception rooms, all showing the character of a large upper-class town house. Each building is of good quality.

What to Look For

The Shunpukan Rai Family Residence presents a samurai-style front, with a gatehouse on the street and the main house beyond (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Takehara City says the gatehouse and entrance are traditionally attributed to the tea master Fujian.

At the back is a tea room serving as a family shrine, and the whole is unified in sukiya style (Takehara City). It contrasts with the neighbouring Fukkokan Rai Family Residence to the west, whose shop front on the street follows the merchant omoteya type (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting the Shunpukan

The Shunpukan Rai Family Residence is privately owned, and we found no official information on public access. The exterior can be seen from the streets of the Takehara preservation district. The address is 3-7-24 Honmachi, Takehara City; enquiries to the Takehara City Board of Education culture section (0846-22-2328).