A Two-Storey Annex on the Garden's Lower Terrace
South of the main house at the Ishii estate in Nōma, the ground steps down behind a stone retaining wall, and on that lower terrace, one level below the main house garden, stands the detached annex. It is a compact two-storey building of about thirty-six square metres under a tiled roof, with its own small garden gate. Built in the early Shōwa years, it shows how a prosperous soy-brewing family extended its living quarters outward and downward, following the natural fall of the land.
Storage Below, Living Above
The annex is a north-south range with an irimoya hip-and-gable roof finished in hongawara, the heavier formal tiling of paired round and flat units. A geya skirt roof of lighter sangawara pantile runs around all four sides, lowering the eaves and giving the small building a settled, grounded look. Inside, the two floors are divided by use: the ground floor served as storage, while the upper floor held the living room, lifted above the damp and given the better light and air.
The exterior reads in two bands. The lower walls are clad in yakisugi, cedar boards charred black to resist rot and insects, their dark surface a practical and handsome finish for a brewing town where soot and brewing fungus already darkened every timber. Above, the walls turn to white shikkui plaster, so the building shifts from dark base to pale crown as the eye travels up. On the east face, a small window cut in the kaku-mokkō shape, a squared quatrefoil, adds a single deliberate flourish to an otherwise plain elevation.
Why It Was Registered, and What to Look For
The detached annex was entered on the national register of tangible cultural properties on 9 February 2005 as number 37-0244, one of the seven Ishii buildings listed together, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape. Its registered scope includes the attached garden gate. Like the rest of the estate, it remains in private hands under the lighter protection that registration carries.
Its interest lies in how it uses the slope. A flat site invites a single spreading house, but the Ishii ground falls away to the south, and the family answered that fall by placing the annex on a lower terrace, tying it to the main house garden above by level and by the small garden gate. The result is a composition in steps, with the main house commanding the higher ground and the annex set below it, each on its own stone wall. This layering is exactly what makes a Shōdoshima soy estate read as a designed sequence rather than a row of separate buildings.
For the visitor, the annex rewards attention to its two-tone walls and its setting. Note the charred black cedar of the lower storey against the white plaster above, find the squared-quatrefoil window on the east face, and see how the building sits a full level below the main house garden on its own retaining wall. Read together with the house above, it shows how the estate was composed across the contours of its hillside.
The annex is private property and is not open; please view it from outside. To see inside a Shōdoshima soy estate, the Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum nearby is open to the public, and the Hishio-no-Sato walking routes pass the old houses and storehouses of Nōma.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Kagawa
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Kikko Ishii Family Residence Outbuilding
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Q&A
- What is the detached annex for?
- It extended the family's living quarters. The ground floor was used for storage and the upper floor as a living room, set on a terrace one level below the main house garden and linked to it by a small garden gate.
- Why are the walls two different colours?
- The lower walls are clad in yakisugi, cedar charred black to resist rot and insects, while the upper walls are white shikkui plaster. The building shifts from dark base to pale crown as you look up.
- What is the small shaped window?
- On the east face there is a window cut in the kaku-mokkō shape, a squared quatrefoil. It is a single deliberate decorative touch on an otherwise plain wall.
- When was it built?
- In the early Shōwa period, making it one of the later buildings on an estate whose oldest part, the soy brewing shed, dates from around 1885.
- Can I go inside?
- No. It is private property and not open. You can view it from outside, where its two-tone walls and lower-terrace setting are easy to read against the main house above.
Basic Information
| Name | Kikko-ishi Ishii Family Residence, Detached Annex |
|---|---|
| Location | 262 Saka-no-yama-kō, Nōma, Shōdoshima-chō, Shōzu-gun, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), No. 37-0244 |
| Registered | 9 February 2005 (gazetted 28 February 2005) |
| Registration criterion | Contributes to the historic character of the national landscape |
| Built | Early Shōwa period |
| Quantity | 1 building, with attached garden gate |
| Structure | Timber, two storeys, tiled roof, building area about 36 m² |
| Access | Private property; exterior viewing only, interior not open |
References
- National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Kikko-ishi Ishii Family Residence, Detached Annex
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004652
- Walking the Hishio-no-Sato soy district, Shōdoshima (My Kagawa)
- https://www.my-kagawa.jp/shodoshima/feature/shodoshima/beauty3
- Shōdoshima Town: the Sanuki soy sauce brewing tradition
- https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/gyousei/kakuka/shogaigakushuka/2/5909.html
- Kagawa Prefecture: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in Kagawa
- https://www.pref.kagawa.lg.jp/kenkyoui/shogaigakushu/bunkazai/culturalassets/culturalassets_16.html
Last verified: 2026.06.25