What Is the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House?
The Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House (葛野常満家住宅主屋, Kuzuno Jōman-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a house in Katsuragawa Bomuracho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, built in the Tenpō era (1830–1843) and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2001. It is a single-storey timber building with an Irimoya-zukuri roof of thatch under temporary metal sheeting, and it covers 145 m² of ground.
It was the home of the Kuzuno Joman family, who served as the mandokoro, or administrative office, of the temple Myōōin, and it stands on the corner where the temple approach leaves the Wakasa Kaidō. A storehouse built in 1873 on the same plot was registered on the same day.
Why the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House Was Registered
The registration criterion is contribution to the historic landscape of the country, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House the core of the townscape in Myōōin's temple-gate settlement.
The appraisal goes beyond the exterior. With its hip-and-gable thatched roof the house looks like any farmhouse in the valley, but inside it has a tōri-niwa, an earth-floored passage running from front to back, and a frame of posts and beams that the Agency describes as skilful and robust. Those two features, it says, have no parallel locally and make the house unusual.
The Agency does not say why a house in a mountain hamlet was planned this way, and nothing in the sources links the layout to the family's duties for the temple. The question stays open.
What to Look For at the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House
Start with the roof. Metal hides the surface, but the Agency's entry reads "thatch (temporary metal roofing)", so the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House keeps a thatched roof wrapped in sheeting. The small triangular gable near the ridge, with broad slopes falling away on all four sides below it, is what marks the hip-and-gable form.
Then look across the approach at the Kuzuno Joki Family Residence Main House. It dates from 1843 and is also a single-storey thatched house with a hip-and-gable roof, so on the Agency's dates the two main houses at the head of the approach went up at about the same time. They look alike, but they were valued for different things: here the plan and the frame, there a formal Shikidai entrance beside the earth-floored room.
North of the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House, the 1873 storehouse turns its gable to the approach. With the house on the corner and the storehouse lined up along the lane, the arrangement of the plot is easy to read from the road.
Visiting the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House
The interior of the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House is not open, so the tōri-niwa and the framing that earned the registration cannot be seen. The exterior is visible from the corner of the approach and the Wakasa Kaidō; please keep to the road and do not enter the plot.
Directions and bus times are collected on the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence page.
Q&A
- When was the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House built?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House to the Tenpō era (1830–1843) without giving an exact year.
- When was the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House registered as a cultural property?
- It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 20, 2001, as registration number 25-0181, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.
- Can I go inside the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House?
- No interior opening is announced in Agency or Otsu City materials. The house is seen from the approach and the Wakasa Kaidō, and the plot itself is off limits.
- What is the tōri-niwa in the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House?
- It is an earth-floored passage that runs through the house from front to back. The Agency rates this plan, together with the skilful and sturdy frame, as unusual and without parallel in the area.
- Who were the Kuzuno Joman family of the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House?
- According to the Agency, they served as the mandokoro, or administrative office, of Myōōin in Katsuragawa. Across the approach stands the house of the Kuzuno Joki family, who represented the temple's lay parishioners.
Basic Information
| Name | Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 92 Katsuragawa Bomuracho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | 2001-11-20 (registered) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber building, building area 145 m² |
| Owner | Unknown (not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public (exterior visible from the approach) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs Database: Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House (Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002550
- Agency for Cultural Affairs Database: Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Storehouse (Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002551
- Agency for Cultural Affairs Database: Kuzuno Joki Family Residence Main House (Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002632
Last verified: 2026.10.15
