Chida Tadashi Memorial Hall

Chida Tadashi Memorial Hall

The Chida Tadashi Memorial Hall (千田正記念館) is a town-run memorial hall in Mikajiri, Kanegasaki Town, Iwate Prefecture, where the Western-style wing of the former Iwate governor's residence of about 1909 and the main house and storehouse of the former Chida family residence of around 1930 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2018 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All three belong to Kanegasaki Town.

The hall keeps the Chida family house together with the Western-style building moved from the governor's residence (Internet Museum; Agency for Cultural Affairs). Chida Tadashi was born in Iwate Prefecture in 1899, won a seat in the House of Councillors in 1947 and served three terms, then governed Iwate for four terms, 16 years, from 1963 (Kotobank, Dictionary of Japanese Politicians).

The town marked the registration of the three buildings with a commemorative event at which the local Mikajiri deer dance, shishi-odori, was performed (Kanegasaki Town public bulletin).

The Three Buildings

The Former Iwate Prefectural Governor's Official Residence Western-Style Building was built in about 1909 as the reception section of the residence's Western-style wing and was moved in 1971 and 1994. Its reception-room ceiling has boards radiating from a central ornament (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The main house of the former Chida family residence, from 1930, is a two-storey timber house facing south. A 10-mat reception room and a 7.5-mat anteroom open onto verandas on the south and west, and the lower walls of the eastern half are rendered in mortar and pierced by a round window, mixing Japanese and Western elements (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The itakura storehouse, from about 1929, stands north of the main house and also faces south. Its walls are made of horizontal boards dropped into grooves between the posts, and it was moved a short distance in 1995 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each building has its own page.

Reading the Site

The main house faces south, with the storehouse behind it to the north, also facing south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Walking from the front of the house round to the storehouse shows how a home and its store worked together around 1930. The Meiji-era Western-style building came from elsewhere; set beside the Japanese-style house, it makes the difference in date and purpose easy to see.

Visiting

Admission to the Chida Tadashi Memorial Hall is free, and it opens from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Internet Museum, checked November 2026).

It is open only from spring to autumn. Internet Museum lists Thursday to Sunday from May to November, but other tourism listings give Friday to Sunday and public holidays from May to October, so check with the hall before setting out. No official information was found on interior access or photography.