Suenobu Family Residence (Former Suenobudo Clinic) Kamaya

What Is the Suenobu Family Residence Kamaya?

The Suenobu Family Residence (Former Suenobudo Clinic) Kamaya is a single-story timber kitchen and servants' wing built in 1927 in Wajiki, Geisei Village, Kochi Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on October 14, 1999. Its Japanese name is 末延家住宅（旧末延堂医院）かま屋 (Suenobu-ke Jūtaku, Kyū Suenobudō Iin, Kamaya). A kamaya is a building organized around the kitchen stove, or kamado.

It runs along the property's northern boundary, behind the main house. The plan is long and narrow, 7 ken (about 13 meters) along the ridge and 1.5 ken (about 2.7 meters) deep, with a tiled roof and a building area of 40 square meters. This was the working back of a doctor's household.

Why It Was Registered

The Suenobu Family Residence Kamaya was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. Inside, the building divides from east to west: three rooms for live-in servants at the east end, and the kitchen proper occupying the westernmost 2 ken.

Putting the kitchen and the servants' rooms under one roof says a good deal about the size of a country doctor's household in the late 1920s, with staff who lived on the premises. The main house handled the clinic and the family; the kamaya handled cooking and the lives of the people who worked there. Front and back are clearly assigned.

What to Look For: A Stepped Roof and a Vent Cap

A long, low wing can look monotonous, and the Suenobu Family Residence (Former Suenobudo Clinic) Kamaya avoids that through its roof. The western part of the roof is raised a step higher, and above the kitchen sits a small separate roof that works as a ventilator for smoke and steam. Low over the living rooms, higher over the fire, with a little cap on top: the roofline traces how each part was used.

On the north face, a row of slatted windows sits under a narrow pent eave. Even the side along the boundary was finished with care.

The same design carries over to the roofed wall that runs north from the nagayamon gate, a sign that the whole northern edge of the property, from the front gate to the kitchen wing, was planned to match.

Visiting the Kamaya

The Suenobu Family Residence Kamaya is an outbuilding of a private home. The interior is closed and the grounds cannot be entered. Because it sits north of the main house, it is largely hidden behind the gate and the main house when seen from the prefectural road.

Its best features are on the north side, as the official description notes, but public sources do not say how much of that side can be seen today. Keep to public roads and do not enter private land. Directions to the property and details of the village's guided walks are on the Suenobu Family Residence group page.