Endo Family Residence (Sapporo)

About the Endo Family Residence (Sapporo)

The Endo Family Residence (Sapporo) (遠藤家住宅, Endō-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of the Endo family, timber merchants, at 5-18 Minami 6-jo Nishi in Chuo Ward, Sapporo, built around 1919, and its six structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2014.

The six are the main house, a brick storehouse, a south stone storehouse, a north stone storehouse, the front gate and the wall that runs round the whole site. What makes the Endo Family Residence startling is where it is. Susukino is Sapporo's nightlife district, a grid of bars, restaurants and neon, and in the middle of it sits a walled compound of tall stone and brick with tiled roofs showing over the top. The national advisory council that recommended the registration singled it out for exactly that contrast: a dignified residence holding its ground inside an entertainment quarter.

A second Endo Family Residence, in Daisen, Tottori Prefecture, is also on the national register, so this site adds the city name to tell the two apart.

Registration of the Six Endo Family Residence Structures

The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the six structures on March 18, 2014, and they were entered on the register on October 7, 2014, under the consecutive numbers 01-0136 to 01-0141. All six were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape of the country. That round added 154 buildings nationwide, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs placed the Endo Family Residence first among the examples in its announcement.

The Agency's database dates every one of the six to around 1919. Their construction, as recorded there:

• Main house: single-storey, timber and concrete, 671 m² in building area, altered in 1935, 1957 and 1998
• Storehouse: 2-storey, brick, 54 m²
• South stone storehouse: single-storey, stone, 18 m², with a basement
• North stone storehouse: single-storey, stone, 29 m²
• Front gate: timber, 2.5 m wide, with flanking walls and wicket doors
• Wall: stone and brick, 161 m in total length

Only the main house has alteration dates on record; the database gives none for the other five.

Layout of the Endo Family Residence

A wall encloses the Endo Family Residence on all four sides. The east, south and west runs are built of Sapporo nanseki, the soft volcanic stone quarried around the city, while the north run is brick, and for part of its length it is simply the north wall of the main house doing double duty.

The main house stands near the middle of the plot, facing south. The front gate opens in the south wall at an angle to the main entrance rather than straight in line with it. The brick storehouse is joined to the northwest corner of the main house. Along the inside of the east wall stand the two stone storehouses, the south one and the north one, each using the boundary wall itself as its eastern face.

The result is an estate with two faces. To the south, the street sees a Japanese gate set in stone; to the north, it sees brick. The pages for each structure cover how they were built and what to look for.

Visiting the Endo Family Residence

The Endo Family Residence is not open to the public. The City of Sapporo lists it as viewable from outside the grounds only, so a visit means looking over and along the walls from the surrounding streets. There is no access to the yard or the buildings.

The nearest station is Susukino on the Namboku subway line; the city gives the distance from Exit 3 as about 360 meters, roughly a five-minute walk. The Higashi-Honganji-mae stop on the Sapporo streetcar is also close by. We found no information on parking for visitors.

No official guidance on photography could be found as of October 2026. This is a private property in a busy commercial district, so if you take pictures from the street, keep the gateway and anyone coming or going out of frame.