Shimomura Family Residence

What Is the Shimomura Family Residence?

The Shimomura Family Residence (下村家住宅, Shimomura-ke Jūtaku) is the homestead of a well-to-do farming family in Daigo Rakuho-cho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, where four buildings dating from the late and final decades of the Edo period were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 28, 2011.

The property sits in the district just outside Daigo-ji, the great Shingon temple in the hills of southeast Kyoto, and its main house fronts the old road known as the Daigo-michi on its north side. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as a building that shapes the historic streetscape in front of Daigo-ji, and credits the Tatsumi Storehouse with contributing to the look of the temple town. Of the Inui Storehouse it says that it conveys the traditional layout of an old family estate well. With a thatched main roof and two earthen storehouses still standing, the Shimomura Family Residence shows a whole farmstead at the gates of Daigo-ji.

Four Registrations, One Date

All four buildings of the Shimomura Family Residence were entered on the national register in the 71st round of registrations on October 28, 2011, under consecutive numbers 26-0388 to 26-0391. Each was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property under the same criterion: buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The agency's database gives the following dates and sizes.

• Main House: late Edo period (1751 to 1830), with an extension added in the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882). Two storeys in timber, thatched with part of the roof in tile, building area 132 square meters.
• Annex: final years of the Edo period (1830 to 1868). Two storeys in timber, tiled roof, 31 square meters.
• Inui Storehouse: late Edo period (1751 to 1830). Two-storey earthen storehouse with a tiled roof, 32 square meters.
• Tatsumi Storehouse: final years of the Edo period (1830 to 1868). Two-storey earthen storehouse with a tiled roof, 16 square meters.

None of the four comes with a firm construction date. The periods above are estimates expressed as ranges, and no ridge tag or dated inscription is cited in the official descriptions.

Storehouses Named for the Compass

The names of the two storehouses are directions. Inui (戌亥) is the old word for northwest, taken from the Dog and Boar of the zodiac compass, and tatsumi (辰巳), from the Dragon and Snake, means southeast. At the Shimomura Family Residence each storehouse is simply named for the corner of the lot it occupies.

The Inui Storehouse stands in the northwest corner and is joined to the main house by a covered passage. The Tatsumi Storehouse, once used for rice, stands diagonally opposite in the southeast corner, and its floor plan is skewed into a trapezoid to follow the boundary of the plot.

The annex, a two-storey guest wing, is attached to the west end of the main house and looks south over the garden from a veranda. The division of roles is easy to read on a plan: the main house takes the street front, the annex extends it to the west, and the storehouses hold two opposite corners of the lot.

Visiting and Getting There

The Shimomura Family Residence is privately owned and is not open to the public. Kyoto City's list of registered cultural properties in Fushimi Ward records the owner as a private individual, and no regular public openings of the four buildings were found in municipal or other announcements checked for this article.

Only the side facing the Daigo-michi can be seen from outside the property. The road is a local residential street, so please stay off private land and keep to the edge if you stop to look.

The nearest station is Daigo on the Kyoto Municipal Subway Tozai Line. The Shimomura Family Residence lies about 700 meters east-southeast of the station in a straight line on the map, a walk of a little over 10 minutes. According to Daigo-ji's access guide, the trip from JR Kyoto Station takes about 5 minutes by JR to Yamashina, where you change to the Tozai Line for a ride of about 10 minutes to Daigo.