A Farmhouse on the Hill Road at Umaki
Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku (坂下勤家住宅主屋, in full Hepburn Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jūtaku Shuoku), the main house of the Sakashita family residence at Umaki in Shodoshima-cho, Kagawa Prefecture, was built in 1908 and entered Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 March 2006.
The plot lies on the north side of a road that runs east and west along the base of the hills. The house sits toward the northern part of the ground and faces south, which puts the front rooms in the sun and leaves an open working space between the building and the lane.
Carpenters of the period worked in ken, a unit of roughly 1.82 metres. The core of the house measures six and a half ken along the ridge and three and a half across, about 11.8 by 6.4 metres. A pent roof called the geya wraps all four sides, which brings the registered floor area up to 132 square metres.
The plan divides along a line that farmhouse builders in western Japan repeated for generations. The eastern portion is doma, a floor of beaten earth used for cooking, storage and any work involving water. West of it, four rooms on a raised timber floor sit in a two-by-two grid, the arrangement known as yomadori (四間取).
Dating the building is not a single act. The register gives 1908 for the original carpentry, 1917 for one extension and around 1955 for another, and describes the structure as timber, single storey with a part of two storeys. Three campaigns of building, nearly fifty years apart at the extremes, all sit under one roofline.
Registration, and What the Record Singles Out
Japan protects historic architecture through two systems that behave quite differently. Designation (shitei) places strict controls on a small number of monuments. Registration (toroku), created in 1996, covers a much wider group: buildings over fifty years old that remain in ordinary use. Owners accept a duty to notify the authorities before major alteration and receive technical advice in return. Registered properties go on working as houses, shops and workshops.
Three criteria admit a building to the register. The Sakashita main house qualified under the first of them, that a building contributes to the historic landscape of the country. It holds register number 37-0301 and came in with the forty-ninth round of registrations, gazetted on 23 March 2006.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs record draws attention to two survivals in the roofing. The main roof is sangawara, the light interlocking pantile that spread through rural Japan during the Meiji era and displaced almost everything before it. Below that, the south face of the pent roof keeps hongawara, the older and heavier system in which flat pan tiles alternate with semi-cylindrical cover tiles. On the west side, the underside of the eaves is closed with plaster rather than left open to show the rafters.
Neither detail is unusual on its own. Both on a single building, in a district where registered architecture belongs overwhelmingly to the soy-sauce trade, is what gives this house its place in the record. The Agency describes it as a farmhouse of middling rank, and that phrase carries the point: the ordinary agricultural fabric of the island survives here in a form that has grown scarce.
Umaki, and How to Reach It
Umaki is one of the two districts that make up Hishio no Sato (醤の郷), the belt of soy-sauce warehouses and tsukudani workshops along the south coast of Shodoshima. Salt makers who moved over from Ako are said to have founded the settlement; when salt stopped paying, the same families turned to brewing. At the height of the Meiji boom the island held roughly four hundred soy-sauce houses. Around twenty breweries and tsukudani plants are still at work.
The Sakashita ground sits back from that shoreline strip, where the land begins to tilt. The name of the koaza, Sakanoyama, means slope hill.
Three buildings on the property carry registration. The main house holds the north. The storehouse with its stone wall stands to the southwest and the barn to the southeast, and the two of them close the working yard on either side, leaving the south side open toward the road. Looking at the group as a group tells you more than any single building will.
Getting there begins with a ferry. Kusakabe and Sakate are the ports nearest Umaki, served respectively out of Takamatsu and Kobe. Shodoshima Olive Bus runs its Sakate Line along the south coast with a stop named Umaki, and single fares on the island are capped at 300 yen. The local chamber of commerce signposts a walking route through the district that passes working soy-sauce makers.
The house is a private residence. The Agency's record leaves the owner field blank and sets out no arrangement for entry, and no scheme for opening the interior has been announced. The exterior can be seen from the public road along the south of the plot. Photography from the road raises no problem. Stepping onto the land, or knocking at the door, does.
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Q&A
- What is Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku, and when was it built?
- It is the main house of the Sakashita family residence at Umaki in Shodoshima-cho, Kagawa Prefecture. The original carpentry dates to 1908, with extensions in 1917 and around 1955. It was placed on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 March 2006 under register number 37-0301.
- Can visitors go inside Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku?
- No public opening has been announced. The building is a private residence and the national record lists no arrangement for entry. The exterior can be viewed from the road that runs along the southern edge of the site, and photographs taken from there cause no difficulty.
- How do I reach Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku from Takamatsu?
- Take a ferry to Kusakabe, then the Shodoshima Olive Bus Sakate Line as far as the Umaki stop. Island bus fares are capped at 300 yen. Sakate, reached by ferry out of Kobe, also lies close to the district.
- What is unusual about the roof of Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku?
- The main roof uses sangawara pantile, but the south side of the surrounding pent roof keeps the older hongawara system of pan and cover tiles, and the west eaves are closed with plaster instead of showing their rafters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites both survivals in its description.
- Are the other buildings of the Sakashita residence registered as well?
- Yes. The storehouse with its stone wall (register number 37-0302) and the barn (37-0303) were registered on the same day, 2 March 2006. All three buildings date to 1908.
Basic Information
| Name | Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku (坂下勤家住宅主屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 258 Ko, Sakanoyama, Umaki, Shodoshima-cho, Shozu-gun, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register number 37-0301 |
| Year Designated | Registered 2 March 2006; gazetted 23 March 2006 (forty-ninth round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, single storey with part of two storeys, tiled roof; building area 132 square metres; core of 6.5 by 3.5 ken |
| Owner | Private; not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | No public opening announced; exterior visible from the adjoining road |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00005368
- Cultural Heritage Online: Sakashita Tsutomu-ke Jutaku Shuoku
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/181586
- Shodoshima Town: list of designated and registered cultural properties (PDF)
- https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/material/files/group/26/08_sankou.pdf
- Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in Kagawa
- https://www.pref.kagawa.lg.jp/kenkyoui/shogaigakushu/bunkazai/culturalassets/culturalassets_16.html
Last verified: 2026.08.04