Ishida Family Residence (Inouchi, Nagaokakyo)

The Ishida Family Residence in Inouchi

The Ishida Family Residence (Inouchi, Nagaokakyo) is the estate of the old Ishida family in Inouchi, Nagaokakyo City, Kyoto Prefecture; its mid-Edo main house, a storehouse of 1923 and a Taisho-era earthen wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 29, 2013 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). They carry the consecutive registration numbers 26-0415 to 26-0417.

Kyoto Prefecture describes the Ishida Family Residence as a large Settan-type farmhouse at the north end of Inouchi village. Old documents and prayer tablets kept by the family suggest it was built around the Kyoho era (1716 to 1736) and took roughly its present form between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

A different registered Ishida Family Residence Main House, a townhouse on the old Saigoku Kaido now run as the Kotari Fureai Machiya, stands in the Kotari district of the same city; it belongs to a different family.

Three Registered Structures

The main house of the Ishida Family Residence stands toward the north of the plot facing south, entered from the gable end (Tsumairi) under a hip-and-gable roof that keeps its thatch form in copper sheet, with tiled lean-tos around it (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Northwest of it, the storehouse of 1923 runs north to south along the lane, and the earthen wall encloses the plot from the southwest corner past the northwest corner to the northeast corner.

The wall runs 91.1 metres in all and signals the size of the estate from outside (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Kyoto Prefecture). After its plaster had flaked and many tiles had broken, it was repaired in the 2016 fiscal year with a grant from the prefecture's heritage fund. Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

The Ishida Family Residence in Inouchi is a private home, and no official information on public opening was found. The grounds are closed, but the earthen wall and the storehouse facing the lane should be visible from outside (not checked on site).

The nearest station is Nishi-Muko on the Hankyu Kyoto Line, about 1.4 kilometres away in a straight line; Nagaoka-Tenjin Station is about 2.1 kilometres away. The estate lies in a residential area, so please be considerate of the neighbours.