Hirao Family Residence

A village headman's compound in Morio

The Hirao Family Residence (平尾家住宅, Hirao-ke Jūtaku) in Morio, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, is the compound of the Hirao family, regional headmen in the Edo period, and 43 of its parts, from a storehouse of 1790 and the main house of 1896 to gates, walls, stone embankments and bridges, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 7, 2008. What survives is an estate assembled over roughly a century and a half, from the late Edo period into the early Showa era, and still standing much as it was laid out.

The Hirao served as ōjōya, the headmen who oversaw a cluster of villages on behalf of the domain, and they were among the largest landowners in the Tajima region of northern Hyogo. The compound sits near the middle of the Morio settlement on a site of about 4,000 square metres, with some 20 buildings large and small. Forty-three registrations on a single property is one of the highest counts in the prefecture.

Local tradition credits the main house to a Toyooka shrine carpenter, and its heavy roof is covered in the red glazed tiles of the Sekishu region. The compound is also listed by Hyogo Prefecture as an important landscape building under its landscape ordinance.

An estate split by a river

The defining feature of the Hirao Family Residence is the Morio River, which runs straight through the grounds and divides them into a northern and a southern half. Stone embankments about 1.5 metres high line both banks for a total of 148 metres, and two stone bridges join the halves. The main bridge leads from the gatehouse to the main house, with cart ruts still running across it; about 10 metres to the west, a smaller bridge served as the everyday service crossing. Just west of the main bridge, the embankment is cut back to make a roofed washing place at the water's edge, where the household once rinsed vegetables and did the laundry.

The southern half is the public face of the estate. Set a little back from the road, the long gatehouse faces south, with the tool storehouse and the lower storehouse to its west and the rice storehouse to the southeast, so that a run of white plaster walls follows the street. East of the rice storehouse are the carpenters' shed, a well house and a steel water tower. An east gate and a west gate mark the two ends of the southern grounds, and an outer wall 58 metres long in total links the storehouses beside the gatehouse to each gate.

The northern half holds the household. The main house stands near the centre of the site facing south. To its east, joined by a covered forecourt, is the treasure storehouse, and beyond that the detached guest house, with the inner garden spreading to its east and north. North of the main house stands the retirement house, with the new storehouse and the salt and miso storehouse behind; to the northwest are the ceramics storehouse and the west storehouse, with a stone rainwater basin between them. The attendants' waiting house stands southwest of the main house and the livestock barn to its west, while the inui storehouse on the northern edge, the tatsugoya shed, the compost shed and the firewood shed form a U-shaped farmyard in the northwest corner.

Walls and gates that sort the spaces

Inside the Hirao Family Residence, layer upon layer of walls and gates divide the grounds by use. A middle gate and board fence stand before the formal entrance of the main house, and the garden south wall turns along the river to close off the main garden. South of the guest house entrance, the Onarimon gate opens toward the river, with a wall of 27 metres running along the bank from its sides. Partition walls with gates on the west and east of the guest house separate the main garden, the guest house forecourt and the inner garden from one another.

Board fences enclose the inner garden on its east and north sides, and from the west end of the north fence a lower wall continues to the retirement house. A partition wall with a wicket gate runs from the north face of the treasure storehouse, dividing the inner garden from the retirement house garden. On the west side of the main house, a short partition wall closes the gap to the livestock barn, splitting the private domestic zone, with the kitchen and ceramics storehouse, from the working yard around the waiting house. Finishes shift with the audience: white plaster on faces that guests or the street would see, plain clay or boards on the inner sides.

Forty-three registrations and their dates

The 43 registered parts of the Hirao Family Residence carry registration numbers 28-0304 to 28-0346. They cover the main house, treasure storehouse, detached house, retirement house, seven further storehouses, the waiting house, farm sheds and barns, a small shrine, the stone embankments and both bridges, the river washing place, the gatehouse, gates, and every major run of wall and fence. The main house was registered as a model of design, and the other 42 for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Agency for Cultural Affairs records date 12 of them to the Edo period, among them the new storehouse, tool storehouse, detached house, west storehouse, gatehouse, stone embankments and both bridges; 20 to the Meiji era, including the main house; and 11 to the early Showa era, including the treasure storehouse and water tower. Among the precisely dated buildings, the new storehouse of 1790 is the oldest, followed by the tool storehouse of 1805, the detached house of 1826 and the west storehouse of 1833.

The core of the household was rebuilt in the Meiji era, with the ceramics storehouse in 1887, the lower storehouse in 1893 and the main house in 1896; the treasure storehouse of 1931 and the firewood shed of 1932 followed. The tool storehouse and lower storehouse were moved to their present positions in the early Showa era, and the salt and miso storehouse in the mid-Meiji era. Edo-period storehouses and stonework form the skeleton, and each generation added, moved and refitted buildings around it.

Visiting

The Hirao Family Residence is a private home and is, as a rule, closed to the public. Visitors cannot enter the grounds or the buildings, and we found no notice of regular open days (as of October 2026).

From the road you can see the gatehouse, the white walls of the tool, lower and rice storehouses on either side of it, the outer wall, and the east and west gates at the two ends of the frontage. All of these border the family's living space, so please look in passing rather than lingering at the gate or peering over the walls, and take photographs only without disturbing residents or traffic.

Getting there

Morio lies about 5 kilometres southeast, in a straight line, of Toyooka Station on the JR San'in Line. That is too far for a comfortable walk, so a car or taxi is the practical option. The residence is not a visitor facility and has no parking for visitors, and the lanes in the settlement are narrow, so take care where you stop.