Shibata Family Residence (Kyoto)

The Shibata Family Residence: a 1912 farmhouse compound on the old road through Keihoku

The Shibata Family Residence (柴田家住宅, Shibata-ke Jūtaku) is a farming household's compound in Ichinashi, Keihoku Toriicho, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, built around a main house framed in 1912; its main house, bathhouse, roji gate and earthen wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 8, 2008.

Keihoku is the forested upper valley of the Katsura River in the far northwest of Kyoto City. It was a separate town until 2005, when it was absorbed into the city and became part of Ukyo Ward. Toriicho is one of its farming hamlets.

Kyoto City notes that the Shibata Family Residence stands beside the old road, behind a stone base and a clay wall built along a roadside channel, and that this frontage stands out in the local scenery. The city describes the house as a fine dwelling that keeps the lineage of the rural farmhouse while borrowing from the town houses of Kyoto.

Who built the Shibata Family Residence

According to Kyoto City, the Shibata Family Residence was built as the home of Funakoshi Yonekichi, who is said to have been a local schoolteacher. A ridge tag (Munafuda) and a set of paper offerings (gohei) survive from the framing ceremony, and they record that the frame was raised in 1912 under the master carpenter Tanaka Matsunosuke.

Tanaka is said to have been a carpenter from Kyoto itself. The city's citation puts it plainly: this was a house for which builders were brought out from the middle of Kyoto in the Taisho era. In other words, a farming family in a mountain hamlet engaged a city craftsman.

Another detail ties the house to its place. Beside the alcove in the reception room is a household shrine shelf. Kyoto City links this to the area's history as imperial land and notes that the arrangement is common in the district. The Kyoto City Tourism Association likewise describes Keihoku as territory held directly by the imperial court from the Heian through the Edo period.

How the home of the Funakoshi family later passed to the Shibata family is not explained in any source found so far.

Four registrations and the layout of the Shibata Family Residence

The four structures of the Shibata Family Residence were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers: 26-0316 for the main house, 26-0317 for the bathhouse, 26-0318 for the roji gate and 26-0319 for the earthen wall. The main house was registered as a model of good design, and the other three as structures that contribute to the historic landscape.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs' notes allow the plan to be pieced together. The main house runs east to west, with an earth-floored work area at the west end and the raised living rooms to the east. The bathhouse stands apart to the northwest. The roji gate stands south of the eastern post of the formal entrance, joined to it by a short wing wall, and opens onto the garden in front of the reception room. From the gate's south post the earthen wall turns in a U shape around the garden and the east side of the plot.

The channel along the front of the plot is also lined with stone, so the walled base and the waterway together form a traditional residential frontage. Kyoto City adds that a storage barn also survives, though it is not one of the registered structures.

On February 20, 2020, the Shibata house was also certified under Kyoto City's own scheme for buildings and gardens that give the city its character (selection no. 9-051, certification no. 154). Each registered structure has its own page with details of construction.

Visiting the Shibata Family Residence

No information about public openings or interior visits to the Shibata Family Residence could be found, and no admission fee or opening hours have been published. Kyoto City's list of registered properties gives the owner of all four structures as a private individual.

If you go, please look from the road only and do not enter the grounds or pass the gate. From the road you see the stone base along the channel, the clay wall on top of it and the roof beyond. Out of courtesy to the residents, avoid lingering at the gate or pointing a camera into the property.

There is no railway in Keihoku. From Kyoto Station, take the West JR Bus Takao-Keihoku Line to its terminus at Shuzan, which the Kyoto City Tourism Association puts at about 90 minutes. At Shuzan, change to a Keihoku Furusato Bus heading for Yamaguni; the Torii stop is about 7 minutes away by the timetable. The Furusato Bus does not run from December 29 to January 3 and has few departures, so check the return times before you set out.

Names and spellings of the Shibata Family Residence

The registered names are 柴田家住宅主屋 (Main House, shuoku), 柴田家住宅風呂 (Bathhouse, furo), 柴田家住宅露地門 (Roji Gate, rojimon) and 柴田家住宅土塀 (Earthen Wall, dobei). The place name 市無 in the address is read Ichinashi.

Kyoto City's citation writes the gate's name with different characters (路地門), but it refers to the same gate. The city's list gives July 23, 2008, the date of the official gazette notice, while the Agency's database gives the registration date as July 8, 2008.

Other registered properties share the name. There is a Shibata Family Residence in Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, a Former Shibata Family Residence in Fukuoka and a Shibata Family Residence (Former Shimizu Family Residence) in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi Prefecture. None is connected with the house in Keihoku.