Oishi Family Residence

About the Oishi Family Residence

The Oishi Family Residence (大石家住宅, Ōishi-ke Jūtaku) is a farming family's estate in Yane, Tanto-cho, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, where 16 structures, led by a main house built around 1875, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 January 2011.

According to the regional reference work Tajima no Hyakka Jiten, the Oishi family served as village headmen (shōya) in the Edo period, and the estate covers roughly 1,400 square metres. The Oishi Family Residence was also the first Registered Tangible Cultural Property in the Tanto district. Its 16 registration numbers run without a break from 28-0467 to 28-0482, all entered on the same day.

How the estate is laid out

The estate occupies the north side of a road that follows the Izushi River, with the main house at its centre facing south. Along the road, the 48-metre South Earthen Wall runs east to west, broken toward its west end by an entrance 2.7 metres wide.

Outbuildings and walls ring the main house. The East Annex and the East Storehouse line the eastern edge, with the short East Wall at its southern end and the Northeast Earthen Wall closing the corner. Along the north edge, the Rear Annex, the North Storehouse and the Rice Storehouse form one continuous row. The Inner Storehouse sits between the main house and the Rear Annex, with the brick Water Collection Tank just to its west, and the Woodshed and Oku-uchiniwa stand west of the main house.

South of the Rice Storehouse is the Unhulled Rice Storehouse, and southeast of that the Household Rice Storehouse and Waterwheel Shed, joined by the wall of the Unhulled Rice Storehouse East Gate. A garden lies south of the main house's formal rooms, divided by a fence that runs south from the formal entrance, with the Middle Gate set halfway along it.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the storehouses along the north and east edges as elements that shape the estate as seen from outside. Of the 16, only the main house was registered as a model of form; the other 15 were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Some seventy years in the making

The dates run from the early Meiji period to the early Showa period. The oldest structure is the main house of about 1875, enlarged in the mid-Meiji years (1883–1897). The East Storehouse (1879), the Household Rice Storehouse and Waterwheel Shed (1884), the Unhulled Rice Storehouse (1886) and the North Storehouse (1892) followed within the Meiji era, and the East Annex was added in 1919.

The other 10 are dated to the early Showa period (1926–1945): the Rear Annex, the Inner Storehouse, the Rice Storehouse, the Woodshed and Oku-uchiniwa, the Water Collection Tank, the Middle Gate, the Unhulled Rice Storehouse East Gate and the three walls. Three of the Meiji storehouses were refitted in the same years, so much of the estate's present form appears to have been set in early Showa.

Work continued afterwards. The main house and the South and Northeast Earthen Walls were repaired in 1985, the Rear Annex and the Inner Storehouse in 2006, and the main house and the East Annex again in 2009.

Storehouses and household works

There are six storehouses. Three take their names from the rice they held: rice (kome), rice still in the husk (momi), and rice for the household's own meals (hanmai). The North Storehouse is divided inside into a miso store and a tool store, while the East Storehouse and the Inner Storehouse are named for where they stand.

The registration also covers the estate's working equipment. A waterwheel sits under the eaves of the Household Rice Storehouse, and a brick Water Collection Tank stands north of the main house. The Agency describes the tank as an example of a modern private water supply, and says the waterwheel building recalls how daily life was lived in the modern era. Taken together, the 16 structures of the Oishi Family Residence show a farming household fitting itself out from Meiji into Showa.

Visiting the Oishi Family Residence

The Oishi Family Residence is a lived-in home and is normally closed to the public. From outside you can probably see the South Earthen Wall along the road and the roof of the main house rising behind it. Take photographs only from the public road and do not go inside the gate.

The estate sometimes opens as an event venue. During the 2022 Toyooka Theater Festival it was one of the venues in the Tanto area; there was no parking on site, and visitors were directed to the free car park at the nearby Yane community hall. If you plan a visit around an event, check the organizer's latest notice.

The Oishi Family Residence faces the Yane crossroads in Tanto-cho. By car, drive from JR Toyooka Station through Izushi and continue up the Izushi River valley. By bus, Zentan Bus's Izushi–Toyooka line (Okufuji–Toyooka) has a Yane stop, but services are few, so check the timetable in advance (checked 1 October 2026).