Endo Family Residence Main House

About the Endo Family Residence Main House

The Endo Family Residence Main House (遠藤家住宅主屋, Endō-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a modern Japanese-style house built around 1919 at 5-18 Minami 6-jo Nishi in Chuo Ward, Sapporo, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 7, 2014.

It was the home of the Endo family, who traded in timber. The Endo Family Residence Main House is single-storey, built of timber combined with concrete, under a tiled roof, and it covers 671 m². It has a chimney, and it was altered in 1935, 1957 and 1998.

Why the Main House Was Registered

The Endo Family Residence Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs rates it as a high-quality example of modern Japanese-style architecture, pointing to the refinement of its design and the care in its joinery and finishes.

The advisory council's report drew attention to the way Japanese reception rooms and a Western-style parlour are set out facing the garden, and to the fact that the house keeps the air of the Taisho era in the middle of an entertainment district. It is the centrepiece of the six registered Endo structures.

A Western Parlour and Staggered Reception Rooms

The Endo Family Residence Main House faces south, where the entrance porch rises under an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof. West of the entrance is a reception room finished in Western style inside. Putting one Western parlour at the front of an otherwise Japanese house was common practice in well-to-do homes of the Taisho period.

Further west come the formal rooms, a suite of the Rokumadori six-room type, and a detached reception room. They do not run in a straight line. Each block is set back a little from the last, so the plan steps diagonally like geese flying in formation, the arrangement known in Japanese as gankō. Staggering the rooms this way gives each of them more frontage on the garden.

The family's everyday rooms run along the north side. Reception to the south and west, daily life to the north: the division reads clearly in the plan.

A Brick North Wall That Doubles as a Boundary

The north wall of the Endo Family Residence Main House is brick, and it also serves as part of the wall enclosing the estate. The building marks the property line itself, and at its northwest corner it meets the brick storehouse, so the north side of the estate presents a continuous face of brick.

That explains why the Endo Family Residence Main House looks like two different buildings depending on where you stand: a timber house of tiled roofs behind a Japanese gate from the south, and solid brick from the street to the north.

Seeing the Endo Family Residence Main House

The interior of the Endo Family Residence Main House is not open, so the reception rooms and parlour cannot be seen; visitors are limited to the roofs and walls from outside the grounds. The front gate opens diagonally in front of the entrance rather than straight ahead of it, so there is no head-on view of the porch from the gate.

The part of the house you can be sure of seeing up close is the brick north wall along the street on that side. No official guidance on photography could be found as of October 2026.