Former Tango Family Residence

A Weaving Family's House in Noto

The Former Tango Family Residence (旧丹後家住宅, Kyū Tango-ke Jūtaku) is an early Shōwa-period house in Notobekami, Nakanoto-machi, Kashima District, Ishikawa Prefecture, built around a main house of 1933, whose main house, storehouse, front wall, and garden gate and wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 27 October 2017. Nakanoto Town, which owns it, runs the property as the Kominka Kyū Tango-tei (古民家 旧丹後邸), and local tourism listings use that name.

The 4 items were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers, 17-277 to 17-280. The main house was accepted as a model of its type; the storehouse and the two walls were accepted for their contribution to the historic landscape.

At the Former Tango Family Residence the storehouse and both runs of wall are listed alongside the house, so the street front survives as a set rather than as a lone building.

Hemp, Silk and the Tango Family

Nakanoto Town describes the Tango as a family of weavers over several generations. Their district worked mainly in hemp cloth, but the Tango brought in newer techniques, expanded into silk, and pushed to sell abroad, which is how they made their money.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs treats the main house as a typical piece of modern Japanese-style architecture from Notobekami, a community that grew prosperous on hemp textiles. The town, for its part, values the Former Tango Family Residence as a Nakanoto farmhouse of the early Shōwa years built with carpentry handed down since the Edo period.

According to the Ishikawa Prefecture Tourism League, the house was donated to the town in 2015, and registration was recommended on 21 July 2017, three months before it took effect.

How the Four Items Fit Together

The main house of the Former Tango Family Residence stands a little back from the old road. In front of its entrance lies a forecourt, and the front wall runs out to either side of the entrance to enclose it, marking off the street side of the plot.

A garden lies to the east of the main house. The garden gate and wall wrap around it, with their north and west faces on the road. Where this wall meets the front wall it turns a right angle, and at that corner a gate one ken wide opens into the garden. Seen from the street, the two walls read as one continuous frontage.

The storehouse sits in the southern corner of the plot, farthest from the road. It is in fact two storehouses sheltered under a single roof.

From the road, the walls come first, and behind them rises the gable end of the main house, a local form known as Azumadachi. That layering is the easiest way to read how the Former Tango Family Residence is laid out.

Visiting: Access and Current Status

The Former Tango Family Residence is not a museum with regular opening hours. Nakanoto Town rents it out as a venue. Under the town's rules you make a provisional booking by phone or email, submit an application and pay in advance: 2,000 yen for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., 2,500 yen for 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and 5,000 yen for the full day from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., plus 200 yen an hour for heating or air conditioning.

However, the town's website, last updated on 12 July 2024, states that use of the building is suspended for the time being because of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. No reopening date could be found, so contact the Nakanoto Town Planning and Information Division (0767-74-2806) before you go. The town's pages also say nothing about photography.

The front wall and the garden wall both face the road, so their exteriors can be seen from the street even while the building is closed. Please stay on the public road and do not enter the grounds or the garden.

The nearest station is Notobe on the JR Nanao Line. The Hot Ishikawa Tabi-net site gives the walk as about 20 minutes and lists no parking.