A Farmhouse Floored with Bamboo
Step up into the main room of the Former Itō Family House and the floor underfoot is split bamboo, laid in close rows rather than planed boards. On a windy day, drafts work their way up through the gaps. Floor timber was costly and slow to dress in the Edo period, while bamboo grew for nothing in the groves around the farm, so a household of middling means used what lay close to hand. That single choice says a good deal about the family who lived here: settled enough to serve as village headmen, but a long way from rich.
The house stood originally in Kanahodo, a farming settlement in the southwestern Tama Hills, now part of Asao Ward in Kawasaki. The Itō served as nanushi, the headman answerable to the domain for taxes and the running of local affairs. No document records when the house was built. On the evidence of its framing and finish, historians place it in the late 17th to early 18th century. Today it stands inside the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum (Nihon Minka-en) in Tama Ward, a few kilometres from where it began.
The House That Started a Museum
In 1963 the Itō house was slated for demolition, and arrangements were already in motion to move it to Sankei-en, a garden of relocated historic buildings in Yokohama. Kawasaki pressed to keep it within the city instead. The effort to rescue this one farmhouse grew into something larger: an open-air museum devoted to saving rural architecture before it vanished. The Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum opened in 1967, and the Itō house is the building that set the whole project in motion.
Recognition had come first. On 29 May 1964 the house was named an Important Cultural Property, the first folk dwelling in Kanagawa Prefecture to be so designated. What earned it that standing is not grandeur but typicality preserved whole. It survives as a clear, complete example of a middle-rank farmhouse of the mid-Edo period, with the regional building habits of the Tama Hills still readable in every joint and surface.
What to Look For
The front of the house carries a latticed window the locals called a shishi-mado, a "beast-warding window." Shishi meant wild animals, and the grille kept wolves and boar out while letting in light and air. Only half of the bay opens. It is a closed, watchful face that older farmhouses of this region share. Houses built later in the 18th century would throw their fronts open with broad verandas; this one keeps its guard up.
Inside, the plan is the broad-room, three-room arrangement common to the area, with one departure from the norm. The formal room, the Dei, runs to an unusually generous twelve mats. It is the only matted room in the house, yet it has neither a decorative alcove nor a ceiling, both of which became standard in farmhouses after the mid-18th century. Their absence dates the building to an earlier moment, before such refinements reached ordinary rural homes.
The earthen-floored work area holds a suwari-nagashi, a low sink worked from a crouch, set beside a large water jar. Above your head the frame is a tidy shihō-geya, a structure with lean-to roofs on all four sides that is a signature of Kanagawa farmhouses. The deep front eave throws the façade into shadow and gives the house its heavy-browed look. Museum guides also point out a small charm cut in the shape of a fish tail, fixed in place as a guard against misfortune.
Visiting and Nearby
The Itō house is one of 25 historic buildings gathered at the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, spread across a wooded slope in Ikuta Ryokuchi park. Farmhouses from across eastern Japan line the paths, joined by a water mill, a kabuki stage, and a raised storehouse. On most days volunteers light the sunken hearths in several of the houses, and the woodsmoke drifting up through the rafters shows how these rooms were actually lived in. Visitors may step up onto the floors of many of the buildings, the Itō house among them.
The museum lies about a 13-minute walk from the south exit of Mukōgaoka-Yūen Station on the Odakyū line, or roughly 25 minutes from Noborito Station on the JR Nambu line. The same hillside holds the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art and a science museum with a planetarium, so a visit to the folk houses slots neatly into a wider half-day in the park.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Kanagawa
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Ito Family Residence (formerly Located in Kaneshige,
- [ Kamakura Buddha Hakone Onsen & Yokohama Tours ]
Q&A
- Can I go inside the Former Itō Family House?
- Yes. It is open to the public as part of the museum, and you can step up onto its floors, including the bamboo-slat main room. Shoes come off where indicated.
- How old is the house?
- No document records the construction date. On the evidence of its building style it is placed in the late 17th to early 18th century, within the mid-Edo period.
- Why is the main room floored with bamboo rather than wood?
- Floorboards were expensive and laborious to make, while bamboo grew freely near the farm. A household of middling means used bamboo as a practical substitute, which also reflects the home's modest rank.
- What does "shishi-mado" mean?
- It translates roughly as "beast-warding window." The latticed front window was meant to keep wild animals such as wolves and boar out of the house.
- How much time should I allow?
- The Itō house itself takes only a few minutes, but the full museum of 25 buildings rewards two to three hours, especially when the hearths are lit.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Itō Family House (Kyū Itō-ke Jūtaku) |
|---|---|
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (designated 29 May 1964) |
| Category | Folk dwelling, pre-modern period |
| Date | Late 17th to early 18th century (mid-Edo period) |
| Structure | Single story; hip-and-gable (irimoya) roof, thatched; frontage 16.4 m, depth 9.1 m; one building |
| Original location | Kanahodo, Asao Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa |
| Current location | Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, 7-1-1 Masugata, Tama Ward, Kawasaki |
| Owner | City of Kawasaki |
| Public access | Open to the public within the museum |
| Museum hours | Mar–Oct 9:30–17:00; Nov–Feb 9:30–16:30 (last entry 30 minutes before closing) |
| Admission | ¥550 general; ¥330 students and ages 65+; free for junior-high age and younger |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/593
- Cultural Heritage Online (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/188433
- Kawasaki City Board of Education, Former Itō Family House
- https://www.city.kawasaki.jp/880/page/0000000266.html
- Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, Visitor Information
- https://www.nihonminkaen.jp/information.html
Last verified: 2026.06.03