Former Obara Family Residence (Towa Town, Waga District, Iwate)

What Is the Former Obara Family Residence?

The Former Obara Family Residence is a thatched farmhouse from the mid-18th century in Taninai, Towa-cho, Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on December 18, 1969. Its official listing is Former Obara Family Residence (Towa Town, Waga District, Iwate) (旧小原家住宅, Kyū-Obara-ke Jūtaku); the bracketed place name is the town that existed at the time of designation, which merged into Hanamaki City in 2006.

No records survive of the family's history or of when the house went up, so its date rests on the layout and the way the frame is built. The main block is a Yosemune-zukuri hipped-roof building of 16.3 by 9.6 meters under a Kayabuki thatch, and a stable wing measuring 5.8 by 5.7 meters projects from its south side. Seen from above, the plan forms an L. In this part of Iwate that shape has a name: magariya, the "bent house."

The building did not always stand here. When the owners built a new home, the town took it over, and according to a city pamphlet it was moved and reconstructed in 1976 on the site of the former Taninai Elementary School. Hanamaki City owns it today.

Why the Obara House Matters

A magariya joins a stable to the living quarters at a right angle. Under the Morioka domain, also called the Nanbu domain, horse breeding was actively encouraged during the Edo period, and families kept their horses indoors under the same roof. The type is therefore often called the Nanbu magariya.

What makes the Obara house valuable is that it records how this type came about. Hanamaki City explains that it was first built as a sugoya, a straight rectangular house with no wing, and that the stable on the south side was added during an alteration in the Kaei era (1848 to 1854), turning it into a magariya.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs takes the same view. Its description notes that the house is a size smaller than a typical magariya, yet its posts and beams are thick and of good timber, and that parts of the structure are identical to a straight house. That combination makes it a strong clue to the origins of the L-shaped plan. The many solid walls around the exterior and the sturdy inner posts are also cited as typical of farmhouses in the district.

What to Look For at the Former Obara Family Residence

A modest stable wing

Start on the south side and compare the two parts. Against a main block 16.3 meters wide, the stable wing projects only about 5.8 meters. Later magariya tend to push the stable much further out, and the restrained wing of the Obara house is read as an early stage of the type. The thatch runs straight from the main roof onto the wing and is folded around the corner of the L.

Earthen floor, stable and hearth

Inside, the broad Doma earthen-floored area (niwa) leads directly to the stable (maya), and you can see how people and horses shared one roof. The raised floor is divided into rooms named daidokoro, jōi, nakanando, urazashiki, nakama and omotezashiki. Over the Irori sunken hearth in the jōi hang a pot hook and a benkei, a straw bundle into which skewers of fish were stuck to dry.

Smoke from the hearth and the kitchen stove did more than warm the rooms; it cured the beams and thatch and helped keep insects and rot away. Look up at the blackened timbers and the thickness of the posts and beams is obvious.

A counterpart nearby

About 8 kilometers south-southeast in a straight line, beyond Lake Tase, stands the Ito Family Residence. During its repair the later stable was removed and the house returned to its original straight form. The two farmhouses approach the story of the magariya from opposite directions, and seeing the Obara house first makes the other easier to read.

Visiting the Former Obara Family Residence

The Former Obara Family Residence is open between April 15 and November 15, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed on Mondays, and admission is free, according to the Hanamaki tourism association. It is closed through the winter, November 16 to April 14. Inquiries go to the Hanamaki City Cultural Properties Division (phone 0198-45-1311).

We found no published guidance on photography inside the house, so ask the attendant before taking pictures of the interiors.

The nearest railway station is Haruyama on the JR Kamaishi Line, about 2.4 kilometers to the northwest in a straight line. No bus route is advertised, so a taxi from Haruyama or Tsuchizawa Station, or a car, is the practical way to reach the Obara house.