Former Onogi Family Residence Main House

About the Former Onogi Family Residence Main House

The Former Onogi Family Residence Main House (旧大野木家住宅主屋, Kyū Ōnogi-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is the central residence of the Onogi estate in Takehana Donomae-cho, Yamashina Ward, Kyoto City, completed in 1939 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 25, 2011. It is a 2-storey timber house with a single-storey section, and at 450 square meters of building area it is far larger than any of the other 7 registered structures on the site.

The house stands near the middle of a lot on the east side of the street and faces south. Kyoto City's survey found an ink inscription and a gohei, a paper-streamer ritual wand, on the ridge beam of the roof frame. Together they show that the Onogi main house was raised in 1939 under the master carpenter Kanamori Mitsugu.

Why It Was Registered: A Castle-Like Silhouette

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Former Onogi Family Residence Main House as two blocks set in echelon, or gankō fashion. One block holds the entrance and a Western-style reception room, the other the formal Japanese rooms. Because the blocks are offset on the diagonal, the walls and roofs step back in stages when seen from the front.

What makes the Onogi main house memorable is its weight. On the 2-storey parts, even the eave rafters and the projecting lattice windows are sealed under Shikkui lime plaster. The main roof is a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri form in Hongawarabuki tiling, and several smaller roofs are built onto it, producing a stacked outline that recalls the turrets of a castle. Kyoto City adds that a carriage porch shelters the entrance on the south, while the single-storey section to the east is built in the exposed-post Shinkabe manner under Sangawara-buki pantiles, so the plastered west and the timber-framed east wear quite different faces.

The registration criterion is that the building contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Kyoto City singles out the house as a distinctive modern Japanese-style residence that borrows from castle and temple design.

Highlights: Reception Rooms and a Temple-Style Stair

Inside the Former Onogi Family Residence Main House, a corridor runs west from the entrance hall. The reception room lies to its south, and 6 Japanese rooms continue toward the back. The principal room, in the northwest corner, measures 12.5 tatami mats and has all three elements of a formal shoin interior: a Tokonoma alcove, Chigaidana staggered shelves and a Tsukeshoin built-in desk. In the 10-mat room toward the east, the alcove post is a thick log with a rippled, pleated surface.

Upstairs are 1 Western room and 4 Japanese rooms. The staircase newel posts are capped with Giboshi finials, copying the balustrades of Buddhist temple halls. Seen together with the exterior, the Onogi main house shows a clear intention to bring the vocabulary of castles and temples into a private home.

The plan also reflects the life of a politician who received many callers: business could be heard in the Western reception room near the door, and guests of honor could be entertained further in, in the formal Japanese rooms.

Visiting the Former Onogi Family Residence Main House

The interior of the Former Onogi Family Residence Main House is closed to the public. While the house served as a wedding venue and restaurant, guests could use the reception rooms, but that business ended at the end of September 2024.

Because the house stands in the middle of the lot, only parts of its roof are likely to be visible over the wall from the surrounding streets. The large hip-and-gable roof with smaller roofs layered onto it is the feature to look for. Access and viewing conditions for the whole estate are covered on the Former Onogi Family Residence page.