Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex

What the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex Is

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex (島内章子家住宅脇離れ, wakibanare) is a two-storey timber outbuilding of the late Edo period (1830 to 1867) in Kamioka, Noichi-cho, Konan City, Kochi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.

It stands near the middle of the estate, north of the main house, with its ridge running east to west. Its west end abuts the storehouse, and a bathhouse built in 1935 is attached on the east.

The building measures 4 Ken by 3 ken under a pantiled Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof, with a building area of 33 square metres. On the ground floor, the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex serves as the walkway out to the field behind the house and holds an outdoor toilet; upstairs is a Zashiki, a formal tatami room.

Why It Was Registered

The Side Annex was registered as a model of form and design.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs values it as a surviving example of the detached building found at the homes of Gōshi in central Tosa. The goshi were country samurai, often farming families of warrior rank, and the old province of Tosa, today's Kochi, had many of them.

Its logic is vertical. The practical side of the household, a passage to the fields and a toilet, is kept on the ground floor, and a proper room is placed above it. It is a compact building made to do two quite different jobs.

What to Look For

The interest of the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex lies in how it meets its neighbours. On the west is the late-Edo earthen storehouse, on the east the reinforced concrete bathhouse of 1935, so storehouse, annex and bathhouse form a single east-west row.

Earth-walled storehouse, timber annex, concrete bathroom: the row runs from the late Edo period into the 1930s on one family's plot.

The upstairs room sits under the gable roof. At 4 ken long and 3 ken deep, the annex is small but deep enough to give a usable second-floor room.

Visiting

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Side Annex is part of a private home and is not open. Neither the Kochi Prefecture nor the Konan City lists give any visiting information (checked 27 September 2026).

It stands in the middle of the property, screened from the southern road by the main house, and it is not known whether it can be seen from anywhere outside. The ground-floor passage is part of the household's daily route; do not enter it.