Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara)

About the Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara)

The Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara) (梶原家住宅（西梶原）, Kajiwara-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a salt-field landowning family in Oshio, Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, where 20 structures dating from the late Edo period to the mid-Showa era, led by a main house built in 1853, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2009.

"Nishi-Kajiwara" (West Kajiwara) is the label Himeji City uses to tell this compound apart from a second Kajiwara Family Residence in the same town. The national register itself simply names every building "Kajiwara Family Residence". About 250 meters to the northwest, in the Tenjin district of Oshio, stand the main house and storehouse of the family the city calls "Naka-Nishi-Kajiwara"; those two were registered separately in August 2009.

The 20 structures of the Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara) carry consecutive registration numbers, 28-0414 through 28-0433, and share a single registration date. The plot lies on the south side of the street, with the main house at its center and parlors, tea rooms, storehouses, a barn and gates arranged around it.

A Landlord Estate in a Salt Town

Oshio means "great salt", and the town lived up to its name. According to the Himeji Film Commission, salt fields stretched as far as the eye could see south of the Sanyo Electric Railway line until around the late 1950s, and the large houses built by their owners still dot the streets. The Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara), just east of Oshio Station, is one of them.

The national database notes that the carpenter's storehouse on the southern edge of the plot preserves a trace of the salt fields that once spread south of the estate. The fields are gone, but the way the Kajiwara compound faced them can still be read from where that building stands.

The registered buildings span well over a century, from the corner storehouse of the late Edo period to the concrete book store of around 1947. A Meiji-era reception wing was added to the 1853 main house, tea rooms, parlors and gates followed in the Taisho era, and storehouse repairs and a new book store came after the Second World War. The registration covers the whole sequence of one household building and rebuilding over several generations.

The 20 Registered Structures and How They Are Arranged

The Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara) comprises the following 20 registered structures, with dates as given in the national database.

• Main House: 1853, extended 1906
• North Detached Parlor: Taisho era
• Tea Room: 1906
• Shitabara Privy: Taisho era
• Small Shrine: Taisho era
• South Detached Parlor: Taisho era
• Tea Room Shizunoya: Taisho era
• Inner Waiting Bench: Taisho era
• Middle Gate: Taisho era
• Inner Great Storehouse: late Edo period
• Darkroom: around 1897
• Inner Storehouse: late Edo period
• Old Book Storehouse: around 1947
• Rice Storehouse: late Meiji era
• Corner Storehouse: late Edo period
• Carpenter's Storehouse: mid-Meiji era
• Barn: mid-Meiji era
• Outdoor Toilet: Taisho era
• Caretaker's Room: around 1897
• Front Gate: Taisho era

It helps to read the plot in three bands. Along the street to the north, the front gate, caretaker's room and corner storehouse form the public face of the estate, while the rice storehouse and the north detached parlor face each other across a forecourt. East and south of the main house lies a cluster built for the tea ceremony: the tea room, the south detached parlor and the Shizunoya tea room, linked by a waiting bench, a middle gate, a privy and a small shrine. Further south, the inner great storehouse, inner storehouse, darkroom and old book storehouse enclose a courtyard, and the barn on the west edge and the carpenter's storehouse on the south handled the working side of the household.

Four structures (the main house, the tea room, the south detached parlor and the Shizunoya tea room) were registered as models of architectural form; the other 16 were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting the Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara)

The Kajiwara Family Residence (Nishi-Kajiwara) is a private home, and its interiors are not open to the public. Visitors can see only the exterior from the street, where bamboo inuyarai guards set in front of the gate give the wall line its character. Please stay off the property and take photographs only from the public road.

The nearest station is Oshio on the Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line. The estate lies east of the station, roughly 200 meters in a straight line (estimated from coordinates), or about a three-minute walk to the front gate.

Each building's structure and details are covered on its own page.