Former Kanno Family Residence (Sumita)

What Is the Former Kanno Family Residence?

The Former Kanno Family Residence (旧菅野家住宅, Kyū Kanno-ke Jūtaku) is a late Meiji-period (1898–1912) merchant town house and storehouse compound in Setamai, Sumita Town, Iwate Prefecture, whose six buildings, a main house, an annex and four storehouses, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 May 2017. Sumita Town restored the property, and it now operates as a community facility called Machiya Setamai-eki.

The family name is read Kanno, not Sugano. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the reading of all six registered names as kyū kanno-ke jūtaku. Iwate has a second Former Kanno Family Residence, moved to the Michinoku Folk Village open-air museum in Kitakami; the Setamai property is a separate merchant house on the old highway.

The "eki" in Machiya Setamai-eki does not mean a railway station. Setamai-eki is the name of the local district, and the facility simply sits inside it. Sumita Town writes the name with the character for "house" in machiya, while the operator's own website spells machiya out in kana.

Setamai and the Kanno Family

Setamai grew as a post station on the old roads through the Kesen district, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs places the Kanno house at the heart of it. The street is still lined with Tsumairi town houses, their gable ends turned toward the road, and Sumita Town notes that the plot layout has hardly changed since the Edo-period domain era.

The Kanno family lived and traded on this street, with the shop at the front and the household behind. By the Taisho era they are said to have hung out several signboards at once: brokering silkworm cocoons, and dealing in the gold dust that was panned in Sumita.

The plot runs back from the street in a long, narrow strip. All four registered storehouses went up within about ten years, the oldest in 1899 and the last two in 1909, and read in date order they show the family adding a storehouse at a time behind the shop.

The Six Buildings of the Former Kanno Family Residence

The house faces west onto the street. The main house stands on the frontage, a classic Machiya with a narrow face and a long reach back. The annex continues to its east, and the storehouses are spread over the rear of the plot. Going by the Agency's descriptions, Storehouse No. 1 stands east of and behind the annex, Storehouse No. 2 marks the eastern edge of the site, Storehouse No. 3 sits on the south side facing east, and Storehouse No. 4 looks onto the inner courtyard.

All four storehouses are Dozo-zukuri, thick earthen-walled buildings, and all carry an Okiyane, a separate roof set over the plastered body. Beyond that they differ: some use a Western king post truss in the roof, one uses traditional Japanese framing, and they range in size between 33 and 99 square metres.

• Main house: late Meiji period (1898–1912), 2-storey timber, building area 127 square metres
• Annex: 1910, 2-storey timber, building area 52 square metres
• Storehouse No. 1: 1909, 2-storey earthen storehouse, building area 49 square metres
• Storehouse No. 2: 1899, 2-storey earthen storehouse with a single-storey section, building area 99 square metres
• Storehouse No. 3: 1900, single-storey earthen storehouse with a partial upper floor, building area 33 square metres
• Storehouse No. 4: 1909, 2-storey earthen storehouse, building area 48 square metres

The six buildings carry consecutive registration numbers, 03-0092 through 03-0097. The main house was registered as a building that would be difficult to reproduce; the annex and the four storehouses were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

The Former Kanno Family Residence as Machiya Setamai-eki

Sumita Town took over the surviving Meiji town house and storehouses, restored them, and turned the Former Kanno Family Residence into a meeting place for residents. Part of it opened on 29 April 2016; work finished at the end of May, and from June the whole main house and the storehouse gallery came into use. A local general incorporated association, SUMICA, runs it for the town as designated manager.

Inside are a community café, a restaurant called Kerasse that cooks with local produce, and a shared lounge. The rear of the main house is a hospitality room, the floor above it is a space for trying out town-house life, and a storehouse on the courtyard serves as a gallery. The building also works as the Setamai district community hall, and the local paper Tohkai Shimpo reports that about 13,500 people used it in fiscal 2025.

Tohkai Shimpo adds that the restoration kept as much of the Meiji structure and timber as it could. The six buildings were registered in 2017, the year after the work was finished.

Visiting the Former Kanno Family Residence: Hours and Access

The Former Kanno Family Residence is a working community building rather than a museum. Sumita Town's page (updated February 2023) gives hours of 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. for the café and shared spaces; Kerasse serves lunch 11:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and dinner 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. It is closed every Wednesday. The facility's own website lists 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., so it is worth phoning ahead. Enquiries go to SUMICA, the designated manager, on 0192-22-7808.

The town's page lists no admission charge. Which rooms you can enter depends on what is booked that day, so ask at reception if you want to see inside. Details for each building, including what to look for and how much of it you can see, are on the individual building pages.

No railway reaches Setamai. From Sakari Station in Ofunato, the Iwate Kenkotsu bus on the Ofunato-Sumita line reaches the Setamai-ekimae stop in about 35 minutes; it runs on weekdays only, 3 times a day. From Morioka, Iwate Kenkotsu's Morioka-Ofunato line stops at the same place, taking about 2 hours to 2 hours 45 minutes depending on the route. The Former Kanno Family Residence is a few minutes' walk from the stop.

Drivers will find the car park behind the building: follow the side of the JA Setamai branch, and it is on the left, opposite the post office.