Former Abe Family Residence

What Is the Former Abe Family Residence?

The Former Abe Family Residence (旧安倍家住宅, Kyū Abe-ke Jūtaku) is a samurai-quarter home on Hidaka-kōji in Mizusawa, Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture, whose five buildings, dating from the early Meiji era (1868 to 1882) to the late Taishō era, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 29 June 2022.

Oshu City owns the Former Abe Family Residence, and the city's Board of Education takes visitors by appointment. The city presents the estate as a modern Japanese-style house that keeps the streetscape of old Mizusawa's samurai quarter.

From Samurai Quarter to Modern Japanese House

Mizusawa grew up as a castle town, and Hidaka-kōji was one of the lanes where its retainers lived, running east to west toward Hidaka Shrine. According to a guide sheet published by the Oshu City Board of Education, the Abe family settled on this lot in 1846, in the time of Chūzaburō, the third head of the house.

The garden is called Suishōen, the Garden of Green Pines, and three old pines in it are thought to survive from the samurai era. The sequence of front gate, garden gate and main house leading inward, with two storehouses at the side, still reads as the layout of a retainer's residence.

The buildings themselves are later. The main house of the Former Abe Family Residence was rebuilt in the early Meiji era as a kindai wafū house, a modern building in traditional Japanese style, and extended in the late Taishō era. The guide sheet suggests that the tiles in the entrance hall date from the Taishō years, when the family converted part of the house into a medical clinic. The two gates are also thought to be late Taishō work, so the estate took roughly half a century to reach its present form.

Five Registered Buildings

The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the five buildings of the Former Abe Family Residence on 18 March 2022, and they became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in the 102nd registration round on 29 June 2022, under the consecutive numbers 03-0114 to 03-0118. The national database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main House: early Meiji, extended in the late Taishō era; two-storey timber building, sheet-metal roof, building area 191 square meters
• Wooden Storehouse: early Meiji; single-storey timber building, sheet-metal roof, building area 18 square meters
• Storehouse: late Meiji; two-storey earthen-walled storehouse, sheet-metal roof, building area 70 square meters
• Front Gate: late Taishō; timber, sheet-metal roof, 2.1 meters wide
• Garden Gate: late Taishō; timber, board roof, 1.1 meters wide

Only the main house was registered as a model of design. The other four qualified for their contribution to the historic landscape. The database gives each date as a span (the early Meiji era as 1868 to 1882, the late Meiji era as 1898 to 1912 and the late Taishō era as 1919 to 1926), so none of the five has an exact year of construction.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The front gate of the Former Abe Family Residence opens in the middle of the north side of the lot, directly onto Hidaka-kōji. A paved path runs south from the gate, and on its east side, close to the street, stands the wooden storehouse.

West of the path lies Suishōen, and the garden gate closes off the garden's eastern edge. The main house stands on the south side of the garden: a two-storey entrance wing with a single-storey reception wing stepping away to the west. The reception rooms turn toward the garden with a veranda along their edge, so the best view of the house is from the garden side.

The storehouse sits east of the main house, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs credits it, along with the wooden storehouse, with shaping the northeast corner of the estate. Oshu City describes this arrangement, gates and house in a line with storehouses on the flank, as one that carries on the look of the castle town.

Visiting

Visits to the Former Abe Family Residence are by reservation only. Oshu City lists the season as weekdays from 20 March to 15 November, with visiting hours from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Bookings go through the Historical Heritage Division of the Oshu City Board of Education (0197-34-1315); weekends and the winter months are outside the published season, so it pays to arrange a date early.

The city's listing does not say whether photography is allowed or whether there is parking, so ask about both when you book.

The nearest station is Mizusawa on the JR Tōhoku Main Line, and the Former Abe Family Residence is about a 15-minute walk west of it. By car, the Mizusawa and Oshu Smart interchanges on the Tōhoku Expressway are each about 15 minutes away. Because the house stands on the south side of Hidaka-kōji, the front gate and the wooden storehouse line up along the lane as you approach.