Ashida Family Residence

About the Ashida Family Residence

The Ashida Family Residence (蘆田家住宅, Ashida-ke Jūtaku) is a late Edo-period thatched farmhouse estate in Higashiashida, Aogakicho, Tanba City, Hyogo Prefecture, whose five structures (the main house, storage shed, toilet, miso storehouse, and stone wall with earthen wall) were registered together as national Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2006.

In Tanba City's own list of nationally registered cultural properties, the five Ashida Family Residence entries occupy numbers 1 through 5, ahead of every other registration in the city. They were the first buildings in Tanba to enter the register. The family name is written with the old character 蘆 for "reed," though it is read Ashida, the same as the surrounding district of Higashiashida (東芦田).

The thatched main house now operates as a café called genten, which means that, unusually for a privately owned farmhouse, visitors can step inside during business hours.

A silk-farming village head's house

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the main house of the Ashida Family Residence as a valuable example of a large, two-storey thatched farmhouse built for sericulture. It has seven tatami rooms on the ground floor, two more upstairs, and a broad earth-floored work area at its southern end.

SATURDAY TAMBA, a local information site for Tanba City, describes the house as keeping the character of a silk-farming household that also served as village headmen. The main house has been used as a café since 2008. According to the same site it closed in 2020, partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened in July 2022 in response to requests from regular visitors.

The village has been closely involved. The Tamba Shimbun newspaper reports that a Higashiashida community group called Egohanaen (江古花園) was founded in 2003 and continues to work with the thatched farmhouse, the stone walls, and a lotus pond as parts of a rural landscape worth keeping.

The five registered structures of the Ashida Family Residence

All five structures of the Ashida Family Residence were registered on 2 March 2006 under consecutive numbers 28-0241 to 28-0245, each on the grounds that it contributes to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the following dates and sizes:

• Main house: late Edo period, extended in the early Showa period. Wooden, two storeys, thatched; building area 179 m²
• Storage shed: late Edo period. Wooden, two storeys, tiled; building area 30 m²
• Toilet: early Showa period. Wooden, single storey, tiled; building area 2.3 m²
• Miso storehouse: early Showa period. Wooden, single storey, tiled; building area 7.8 m²
• Stone wall and earthen wall: late Edo period. Stone wall 34 m long; tiled earthen wall 9.0 m long

What makes the group worth registering as a set is that the small service buildings survived alongside the house: an Edo-period farmhouse, its shed and retaining walls, and the toilet and miso storehouse added in the early Showa period.

Layout of the Ashida Family Residence

The Ashida Family Residence faces west. The main house stands just east of the center of the plot with its front turned to the west, and a small study projects from its southeast corner. The storage shed is joined to the south side of that study, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the shed and house together as forming the face of the estate.

The toilet stands to the north of the main house, while the miso storehouse sits behind it on the east. Along the west edge of the plot a stone retaining wall 2.5 m high holds up the terrace; at its southern end it turns east at a right angle and continues along the south side, where a tiled earthen wall rides on top. From the west, the thatched house and the tiled shed appear side by side above the stonework.

Each structure of the Ashida Family Residence has its own page describing its construction and what to look for.

Visiting the Ashida Family Residence

The Ashida Family Residence is privately owned, and no public opening days for the cultural property have been announced. The main house operates as the café genten, so the way to see the interior is to visit as a customer. A 2024 article on SATURDAY TAMBA gives lunch hours of 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., closed on Wednesdays. Hours and closing days can change, so check with the café before you go (information checked on 1 October 2026).

The outbuildings and stone walls are part of a lived-in property. Keep to the areas the café clearly uses, and ask the staff before taking photographs.

A car is the practical way to get there. The nearest expressway exit is the Aogaki Interchange on the Kitakinki-Toyooka Expressway. The nearest railway station is Isō (石生) on the JR Fukuchiyama Line, but from there you will need a taxi or car. SATURDAY TAMBA describes the approach: follow the road through the rice fields until a lodge comes into view, park there, and walk in the direction of the signs, past a lotus pond and up a flight of steps to the thatched main house of the Ashida Family Residence.