Seiler Family Residence

About the Seiler Family Residence

The Seiler Family Residence (ザイラー家住宅) is a thatched house and music hall at Kamigoma in Hiyoshi-cho, Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture, whose main house of 1916 and music hall, a temple hall of 1784 moved here in 1989, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property structures on August 3, 2006.

According to the Kayabuki Ongakudo website, the pianist Kazuko Seiler performed across Japan and abroad with her husband Ernst Seiler as the Seiler Piano Duo (1972 to 2017), and in 1989 built the thatched music hall Karyobinkutsu in the village of Goma.

Two Buildings

The main house, in the north of the plot, faces west: a single-storey hip-and-gable thatched building with tiled lean-tos on three sides and saddle timbers on the ridge, its walls plastered above vertical boarding (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The music hall stands on higher ground to the south, facing north: a single-storey hip-and-gable thatched building that began as a temple's combined main hall and priests' quarters of the Tenmei era (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kyoto Prefecture says it was the main hall of Seigenji (now Zennoji) in Fukui Prefecture, and that its roof was rethatched with prefectural support in 2006. The main house was registered as contributing to the historic landscape and the music hall as a model of design.

Concerts and Location

Kayabuki concerts are held in the music hall every spring and autumn (Kayabuki Ongakudo); check the official website for dates and booking. We found no official information on visits outside concerts. The address is 2 Kamigoma-minami, Hiyoshi-cho, Nantan City.