Goyashiki (Former Inoue Family Residence) Main House

What the Goyashiki Main House Is

Goyashiki (Former Inoue Family Residence) Main House (郷屋敷（旧井上家住宅）主屋, shuoku) is the early Meiji-era centerpiece of the Inoue family estate in Mure-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on October 12, 2001.

The single-storey timber house stands near the middle of the compound and has a building area of 219 square meters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Meiji era, the years shortly after 1868. Its outline is the regional one: a hipped main roof with tiled lean-to eaves wrapped around all four sides, here built at an unusually generous size.

Inside is a regular eight-room plan. The Goyashiki website describes a tatami-floored corridor running down the center with 4 rooms on each side. The innermost is the jōzashiki, the principal reception room, which keeps its sukiya-style shoin alcove and carved transom panels (ranma).

Why the Main House Was Registered

The Goyashiki (Former Inoue Family Residence) Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The official commentary draws attention to the familiar local silhouette and to the scale at which the Inoue family built it.

It also praises the finish: delicate, precise sukiya-style detailing, the refined manner associated with tea-house design, appears throughout the house. A farmhouse profile outside and tea-room refinement within suits a family that served the Takamatsu domain as yoriki officers and received guests at home.

Sources describe the roof differently. The national database records the structure as tiled, while the Goyashiki website calls it a thatched hipped roof ringed by lean-to eaves. On site, look at the eaves and the upper roof separately.

What to Look For at the Main House

You cannot see the Main House of Goyashiki straight through the Front Gate. Walk left along the paving beside the Storehouse, turn at a right angle, and only then does the entrance come into view. The eaves run around the building at one continuous height, which makes the single-storey house read as long and low.

Inside, stand in the tatami corridor and the plan explains itself, with 4 rooms to the left and 4 to the right. In the jōzashiki, spend a moment on the shoin and the transom carving. According to the restaurant, the largest alteration made for its current use was folding the old kamaya (cooking area) and the yard behind it into the kitchen, while the reception rooms were left close to their original state.

Seeing Inside the Main House

The rooms of the Goyashiki (Former Inoue Family Residence) Main House serve as dining rooms for the Goyashiki restaurant, so a meal is the way in. The website lists private rooms such as the Jōza no Ma; if you want a particular one, mention it when you reserve. The former kamaya is now the kitchen and is closed to guests.

Ask the staff before taking photographs, and do not point a camera into rooms where others are eating. Opening hours and directions are collected on the Goyashiki (Former Inoue Family Residence) group page.