A Thatched Farmhouse at the Foot of a Miyama Hill
The Main House of the Former Koyama Family Residence (旧小山家住宅（田村屋螢庵）主屋, Kyū Koyama-ke Jūtaku [Tamuraya Hotaruan] Shuoku, also written Kyu-Koyama-ke Jutaku Shuoku) is an early Meiji-period thatched farmhouse at Mitsuno in Miyama-cho, Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture, entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 18 April 2008. It occupies the centre-rear of a plot on the western foot of a low hill and faces west, covering a building area of 156 square metres on a single storey.
The roof is the first thing that registers. It is irimoya-zukuri, a hipped-and-gabled form in which the upper part rises to a ridge with two gable ends while the lower slopes fall away on all four sides, and it is thatched. Below the thatch runs a separate eaves canopy laid with sangawara, the light interlocking pantile that became standard in rural Kyoto during the Edo period. Thatch above, tile below: the combination is practical rather than decorative, since the tiled skirt protects the walls and the lowest, most vulnerable courses of reed from splash and rot.
Inside, the plan divides cleanly. The southern half is given over to a broad doma, the earth-floored working room where cooking, threshing, and wet tasks were carried out. The northern half is raised and floored, holding zashiki (matted formal rooms), an itanoma (board-floored room), and nando (a closed inner room used for storage and sleeping). The room at the north end of the west face is the principal zashiki, and it is fitted with a toko (a recessed alcove for a hanging scroll and a seasonal arrangement) and a tsukeshoin, the shallow bay with a low writing shelf that signals formal reception space.
That last detail is the tell. A working farmhouse does not need a tsukeshoin. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the building as carrying the bearing of a former ōshōya, the senior village headman who supervised several villages on behalf of the domain, and the west range reads accordingly: the family received guests here, and the room was built to be looked at.
The parenthetical name comes later. Tamuraya Hotaruan (田村屋螢庵) is the studio name of the Nishijin weaving house Tamuraya, whose founder Tamura Keisei established a workshop in Miyama and called it Hotaruan, the Firefly Retreat. The registered title preserves that chapter of the building's use alongside the family who built it.
Why the Building Was Registered
Japan runs two parallel systems for architectural heritage. Designation (shitei) applies to a small number of buildings of the highest order and comes with tight controls. Registration (tōroku), introduced in 1996, is deliberately lighter: it covers buildings roughly fifty years old or more that merit keeping, and it leaves owners free to repair, adapt, and use them, asking only for notification before significant alteration. Something over 13,000 structures are now on the register, and a great many of them remain private homes and businesses.
A property qualifies under one of three criteria. The Main House was registered under the first, zōkei no kihan to natte iru mono, which recognises a building that sets a standard or model for its type. In plain terms, the assessors judged that this house shows how a substantial Tanba-region farmhouse of its rank was meant to be assembled, down to where the formal alcove sits.
The registration number is 26-0300, assigned in the fifty-ninth round of registrations, with public notice given on 7 May 2008. Two more structures on the same plot were registered the same day: the plastered storehouse northwest of the main house (26-0301) and the garden gate and fence that screen the courtyard in front of the principal zashiki. The three were assessed as a group, and the group is the point. A single thatched roof is common enough in Miyama. A main house, a storehouse, and a gated garden wall standing together on a raised platform of ground is a complete estate layout of a kind that has largely vanished.
The dating is looser than one might like. The Agency's record gives the period as early Meiji, spanning 1868 to 1911, without a construction year. The storehouse, by contrast, is dated precisely to 1893. Local accounts sometimes place the main house earlier, and the honest position is that no construction document has been published for it; the Agency's range is the figure to cite.
What Rewards a Slow Look
Approach from the west and the composition arrives in layers: the gate and its shingled fence first, then the garden, then the great sweep of thatch behind. The ground here is a step higher than the lane, which does a good deal of work. Farmhouses of this size can look squat; raised, this one does not.
Thatch repays attention at the edges. Look at the cut face of the eaves, where the reed ends are trimmed to a dense, even plane, and at the ridge, where the covering is bound and capped against wind. Miyama has kept a working thatching trade alive when most of Japan lost it, and roofs in the area are re-thatched in rotation rather than left to fail. A roof of this size takes a crew and a considerable quantity of reed, which is why the practice survives only where the material and the craftsmen do.
The doma is the other half of the story and the harder half to imagine from outside. It is deliberately large, dark, and open to the roof structure, and in a house of this rank it served as much for the traffic of village business as for domestic work.
A practical caution: this is private property in active use, not a museum. The estate is operated as Hotaruan, a single-party rental lodging, by a local operator in Miyama, and the owner of record is a private company. There are no opening hours, no admission ticket, and no walk-in access. Guests who book the house have the run of it; everyone else is looking from the public lane, where the thatched roof and the gate are visible but the garden and interior are not. Photography from the road is unobjectionable, though the immediate surroundings are lived-in and quiet, and residents' privacy deserves the obvious courtesy.
Getting there takes planning. Miyama sits in the mountains north of Kyoto, and Mitsuno is not on the main tourist circuit. The realistic approach is by car, roughly 40 to 50 minutes from the Sonobe interchange of the Kyoto Jūkan Expressway. Public transport means the JR San-in Line to Sonobe or Hiyoshi and then a Nantan City community bus, which runs a handful of times a day and requires checking the timetable before committing. Anyone making the trip should treat the celebrated thatched village at Miyama-cho Kita, a separate and fully open destination some distance away, as the anchor of the day.
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Q&A
- Can I visit the Former Koyama Family Residence Main House, and is there an admission fee?
- There is no public opening and no admission fee. The building is privately owned and is run as a whole-house rental lodging called Hotaruan, so interior access comes only with a booking. The thatched roof and the front gate can be seen from the public lane.
- When was the Former Koyama Family Residence Main House built and registered?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as early Meiji, within the range 1868 to 1911; no exact construction year has been published. Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 18 April 2008, with public notice on 7 May of that year.
- What does the name Tamuraya Hotaruan in the property's title refer to?
- Hotaruan is the studio name of the Nishijin weaving house Tamuraya, established in Miyama by the weaver Tamura Keisei. The house served as that workshop, and the registered title records both the Koyama family who built it and the atelier that later occupied it.
- How large is the Former Koyama Family Residence Main House, and what is it made of?
- It is a single-storey timber building with a thatched roof and a building area of 156 square metres. The roof is hipped-and-gabled, with a tiled eaves canopy added below the thatch.
- Are there other registered buildings at the Former Koyama Family Residence besides the main house?
- Yes. A plastered storehouse northwest of the main house and a garden gate with its attached fence were registered on the same day in 2008. All three stand on one raised plot and were assessed as a single estate composition.
- How do I reach Mitsuno in Miyama-cho where the Former Koyama Family Residence stands?
- Driving is the practical option, about 40 to 50 minutes from the Sonobe interchange on the Kyoto Jūkan Expressway. By public transport, take the JR San-in Line to Sonobe or Hiyoshi and continue by Nantan City community bus, checking the limited timetable in advance.
Basic Information
| Name | Main House, Former Koyama Family Residence (Tamuraya Hotaruan) / 旧小山家住宅（田村屋螢庵）主屋 |
|---|---|
| Location | 38 Koyamanomoto, Mitsuno, Miyama-cho, Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 26-0300, criterion: a model of its type |
| Year Designated | Registered 18 April 2008; public notice 7 May 2008 (59th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber frame, thatched roof, building area 156 m² |
| Owner | Nishio Asset Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Not open to the public; in use as a private rental lodging. Exterior partly visible from the public lane |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Main House, Former Koyama Family Residence (Tamuraya Hotaruan)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007078
- Cultural Heritage Online: Main House, Former Koyama Family Residence (Tamuraya Hotaruan)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/191800
- Cultural Heritage Online: Garden Gate and Fence, Former Koyama Family Residence (Tamuraya Hotaruan)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/172382
- Nantan City: List of Designated and Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.nantan.kyoto.jp/www/life/112/013/000/index_71573.html
- Miyama FUTON & Breakfast (operator of the Hotaruan lodging)
- https://www.miyamafandb.com/
- Kyoto Miyama Navi: Accommodation in Miyama
- https://miyamanavi.com/stay/
Last verified: 2026.08.06