Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House

What the Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House is

The Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House (旧杉本家住宅主屋, Kyū Sugimoto-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a farmhouse built in the early Meiji period (1868–1882) in Hattaino, Hakusan-cho, Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, moved to its present site in the Meiji 30s (1897–1906), and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 17, 2015.

It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 157 square meters, the largest of the four registered buildings. It sits in the middle of the plot facing south, with the detached room joined on the west by a corridor and the long house attached on the east, so the Sugimoto main house is the hinge of the whole compound.

The house was brought here from somewhere else, but no source found so far says where it first stood.

Why the Sugimoto main house was registered

The Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a good example of a large Meiji-era farmhouse in this district.

What earned it that description is the plan and the finish of the formal rooms. The house keeps the framework of a working farmhouse while lavishing care on the rooms used for guests, which suits a family whose head served as village headman.

An earth-floored side and a staggered six-room plan

In the Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House the earth-floored area lies on the right as you face the south front, that is, on the east side. The raised-floor part is based on a six-room plan, two rows of three rooms, but laid out in the kuichigai manner, with partitions that do not line up in straight rows.

Along the western end of the raised floor are three rooms: the kyakuma (guest room), the butsuma (Buddhist altar room) and the nema (bedroom). The Agency singles out the guest room and the altar room for their well-composed formal alcove fittings and sliding doors and screens. The everyday rooms near the earth floor and the rooms for guests and family rites on the west are clearly set apart.

That western row is also the side where the corridor leads to the detached room, so the house's spaces for receiving visitors are gathered on one side of the compound.

Seeing the Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House

The Former Sugimoto Family Residence Main House is privately owned, and no interior opening has been announced. The alcove fittings of the guest room and altar room are indoors and cannot be seen from outside.

Because the main house stands in the middle of the plot behind the nagayamon gate on the south edge, only part of its roof and front is likely to be visible from the road. Please stay off the grounds. Directions are on the Former Sugimoto Family Residence page.