Yano Family Residence Southwest Wall

About the Yano Family Residence Southwest Wall

The Yano Family Residence Southwest Wall (箟家住宅南西塀, Yano-ke Jūtaku Nanseibei) is a wooden, tile-roofed wall of the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912) in Gogazuka 3-chome, Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, and was entered on the register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 6, 2024. It runs west from the gatehouse on the south front of the estate, turns at the southwest corner and continues along the west side of the main house. At 30 meters, it is almost twice as long as the estate's northeast wall.

Like its counterpart it is a roofed wall, with posts set on long stones, a sangawara pantile roof, plastered panels and vertical boards along the base of the outer face. Itami City describes both walls as standing along the road.

Why It Was Registered

The Yano Family Residence Southwest Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits it with creating, together with the main house and the gatehouse, an imposing residential compound.

Of the Agency's ten descriptions, this is the only one to use the word gōsō, imposing. The storehouses and barns secure the back edges of the plot, while the southwest wall takes the front and the west flank. It carries on directly from the gate to form the long face that passers-by see first, and so does most of the work of showing the family's standing to the street.

The northeast wall uses the same construction, but the southwest wall is older. The front and west walls were in place in the late Meiji era; the northeast corner was closed only in the late Taisho era. The same wall design, set at opposite ends of the perimeter more than a decade apart, shows that the compound was not finished in one campaign but built out from the front. The date range does not reveal if this wall came before or after the gatehouse of 1905.

What to Look For

Thirty meters from the gate

The thing to see on the Yano Southwest Wall is the line it continues from the west end of the gatehouse. The roofline passes from the gate's irimoya roof to the wall's pantiles and runs unbroken to the corner, where it turns north to wrap the west side of the main house. The best way to look at this wall is as one long frontage with the gate.

Posts and brackets

Posts rise from long stones every half ken, about 0.9 meters, and the eave beams rest on arms projecting from them. Over 30 meters that adds up to a great many posts, and their close spacing sets a fine rhythm along the long face.

Hidden buttresses

On the inner side, buttress posts every full ken, about 1.8 meters, hold the wall upright. From outside you see only the board-clad base and the plaster above; the bracing stays out of sight. Keeping the public face flat and taking all the reinforcement on the inside suits a wall that serves as the front of the house.

Visiting

The Yano Family Residence Southwest Wall encloses a private home, so the grounds are closed (checked September 26, 2026) and the inner face with its buttresses cannot be seen.

The outer face stands along the road and can be seen from the street. The Agency's photograph shows the southwest corner, where the wall changes direction. Walk west from the gate and follow the wall to that corner to take in both its full length and the turn.

No sign prohibits photography. The other side is a family home, so do not hold a camera up over the wall.