Former Fujimori Family Residence

What Is the Former Fujimori Family Residence?

The Former Fujimori Family Residence (旧藤森家住宅, Kyū Fujimori-ke Jūtaku) is a physician's former home in Funabashi-cho, Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, whose eight buildings, put up between 1930 and 1940, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2022.

It sits in Senba, a residential district west of Himeji Castle, on a plot of about 50 by 40 metres. A family house and a small tea-ceremony compound share the ground. Much of central Himeji burned in the war; the Former Fujimori Family Residence came through intact, and the city now presents it as one of the few places where a pre-war townhouse estate can still be read as a whole.

A Doctor's House Built Around an Older Tea Garden

The estate was assembled by Fujimori Shinji, who ran an ear, nose and throat clinic in Honmachi, the old commercial centre. According to Himeji City, he bought a plot that already held a tea house and its outbuildings, and finished laying out his home there in 1940. The tea house Saihōan, the waiting pavilion, the preparation house, the privy and the garden gate all date from 1930, before the family arrived. Fujimori added the Main Building and a service gate, and brought in a birthing hall from another estate in the city.

The volunteer group that looks after the house says Shinji also sat in the House of Councillors after the war. His son Haruki carried on the clinic, which closed in 2019; Haruki had donated the house to Himeji City in 2015.

The Main Building was designed by the architect Ebihara Ichirō, whom the National Film Archive's location database describes as a forerunner of post-war modernism in Japan. The caretakers also relate that the tea house was named by Tantansai, the fourteenth head of the Urasenke school of tea.

The Eight Registered Buildings

All eight buildings of the Former Fujimori Family Residence were entered on the national register on 29 June 2022, under registration numbers 28-0780 to 28-0787. Four (the Main Building, the birthing hall, Saihōan and the waiting pavilion) were recognised as models of design; the other four (the preparation house, the privy and the two gates) for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives these dates and sizes:

• Main Building: 1940. Two storeys, partly single-storey, tiled roof, building area 232 m²
• Sanden (birthing hall): about 1935, moved here in 1940. Single storey, tiled, 69 m²
• Saihōan tea house: 1930. Single storey, tiled, 48 m²
• Machiai (waiting pavilion): 1930. Single storey, tiled, 17 m²
• Setchin (privy): 1930. Single storey, cedar-bark roof, 0.9 m²
• Mizuya (preparation house): 1930. Single storey, tiled, 43 m²
• Rojimon Gate: 1930. Timber, tiled, 1.6 m wide
• Kattemon (service gate): 1940. Timber, tiled, 1.5 m wide

The dates fall into two clear layers: a tea compound of 1930, and the family quarters Fujimori added in 1940. One detail differs between sources. The national database dates the move of the birthing hall to 1940, while the caretakers' account gives 1939.

How the Former Fujimori Family Residence Is Laid Out

The plot faces the street on its north side, and both gates are on that edge. The Rojimon Gate, to the west, leads guests along the garden path to the tea house; the Kattemon, to the east, gives on to the kitchen door of the house. Guests and household were separated before they even stepped inside.

The Main Building occupies the eastern part of the site, with the birthing hall just north of it, set a step higher according to the caretakers. West of the Main Building stands the waiting pavilion, with the tiny privy against its east side. Further west, in the north-west corner, Saihōan faces south over the garden, and the preparation house stands beyond it on the street line.

Placing the tea buildings together in the north-west and leaving the south open as garden looks like the 1930 arrangement, kept as Fujimori found it. Each building of the Former Fujimori Family Residence has its own page with details of construction.

Visiting the Former Fujimori Family Residence

The Former Fujimori Family Residence has been open to the public since spring 2025. Himeji City's page (updated April 2026) lists opening on the 2nd Sunday of each month, 10 a.m. to 12 noon, with closures over the New Year, on other occasional days, and in bad weather to protect the buildings. A small charge for printed materials is mentioned, though the city does not give the amount. Openings are run by a volunteer association, the Kyū Fujimori-ke Jūtaku o Mamoru Kai, on behalf of the city.

The schedule was revised once during the 2025 season, so check the city's page shortly before you go. The official notices say nothing about photography; ask the volunteers on the day.

From Himeji Station the walk takes about 20 minutes. By Shinki Bus, get off at Kaei-cho and walk north for about 4 minutes. It is roughly 7 minutes by car, and there is a free car park on the property with room for about six ordinary cars, available only on open days and volunteer cleaning days. The streets around are residential, and visitors are asked not to park on the road or on vacant lots.