Hattori Family Residence

The Hattori Family Residence

The Hattori Family Residence (服部家住宅, Hattori-ke Jūtaku) in Kosugi-cho, Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture, is the early Showa-era home of a rice-dealing family, and four of its buildings, led by the main house of 1934, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 29, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The house stands in the southern part of Kosugi-cho, on the south bank of the Kaizo River. According to Yokkaichi City, the Hattori family farmed and traded from the end of the Edo period, and by the late Meiji era had become one of the leading rice merchants in Mie Prefecture. The present buildings were put up as a family home by the grandfather of the current owner.

The dates run in a tidy sequence: the main house in 1934, the storehouse in about 1936, the front gate in about 1937 and the barn in about 1938 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Once the house was finished, the family spent roughly five years adding the storehouse, the gate and the barn around it.

There is another Hattori Family Residence in Yatomi, Aichi Prefecture; it belongs to a different family. This page covers the Hattori house in Kosugi-cho, Yokkaichi.

How the Four Buildings Sit

The main house stands in the middle of the plot, facing north, with the front gate on the street along the north side (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The barn sits between the house and the gate, just east of the gate, and the storehouse occupies the north-west corner, linked to the house by a covered passage.

• Main house: 1934, 2-storey timber, a hip-and-gable roof with a gentle upward swell and cedar-bark cladding, in a modern Japanese style
• Barn: about 1938, single-storey timber, a one-room earth-floored building whose roof and walls match the house
• Storehouse: about 1936, a 2-storey plastered storehouse for household goods, with modern touches such as mortar finishes
• Front gate: about 1937, a gabled four-legged gate (shikyakumon) that gives the house its formal face to the street

The four carry consecutive registration numbers, 24-263 to 24-266 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Yokkaichi City points to the barn dressed to match the house, the modern elements of the storehouse and the dignified gate, which together give the street a quiet, settled look. Each building is described on its own page.

Visiting

The Hattori Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public. In a 2018 announcement Yokkaichi City said that part of the house is used for tea gatherings and similar events, but no official information on visits or open days was found.

The building on the street is the front gate on the north side, with the storehouse to its west. Please view the exterior from the road only, without entering the grounds or peering in through the gate, and take photographs with the residents' privacy in mind.