Misedoi Family Residence

The Owase Estate of the "Doi Mise" Forestry Family

The Misedoi Family Residence (見世土井家住宅, Misedoi-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a forestry family in Asahi-cho, Owase City, Mie Prefecture; its main house of 1931 and eight other structures, including gates, walls and storehouses, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on 4 August 2015. Locally the place is better known as Doi Mise-tei, the Doi Mise house.

The family is a branch of the Doi family of Owase. Its founder, Chūbei, was the third son of Hachirobei Sōken, fifth head of the main Doi line. Alongside managing forests, the branch ran a shop selling everyday goods, which earned it the house name mise, literally "shop". Townspeople simply called them Doi Mise. Past heads of the family included a grand headman (ōjōya) of the Owase-gumi district and the first mayor of Owase Town.

The east edge of the property runs along the former Kumano Kaidō, the old pilgrim road that passes through the town. According to Owase City's tourism site, the main house was designed by Andō Kihachirō.

Nine Listings, Several Generations of Building

All nine parts of the Misedoi Family Residence were added in the same round of registrations and carry consecutive numbers, 24-0207 through 24-0215: the main house, main storehouse, storehouse, barn, rice storehouse, outdoor toilet, well house, main gate and wall, and north service gate with earthen wall.

They were not built at one time. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main storehouse to the late Edo period (1830 to 1868), which makes it the oldest. The smaller storehouse, the barn and the north service gate belong to the Taishō era (1912 to 1926). The main house followed in 1931, and the rice storehouse, outdoor toilet, well house and concrete main gate date to the early Shōwa years (1926 to 1945). Four structures on the lot are older than the house they now surround.

The Registered Tangible Cultural Property listings also rest on two different criteria. Only the main house was listed as a model of design, recognising its blend of Japanese and Western elements. The other eight were listed for their contribution to the historic landscape: taken together, they preserve the full working layout of a wealthy timber family's compound. Owase's Board of Education singles out exactly this completeness, noting how well the ancillary buildings survive as a set.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The Misedoi Family Residence occupies a corner lot. The old Kumano road bounds it on the east and a side street branching off that road bounds it on the north. A reinforced-concrete main gate opens toward the old road near the southern end of the east side, while a timber service gate faces the side street. It is a house with a formal front door and a working back door, each on a different street.

The main house stretches east to west. Its Western-style entrance and reception room sit at the east end, closest to the road, with Japanese rooms running westward. The service yard lies north of the house. Step out of the kitchen's back door and the well house stands directly ahead, with the main storehouse beyond it. The small storehouse sits tight against the west end of the house, and the barn lines up further west. The rice storehouse fills the northwest corner, and the narrow outdoor toilet is slotted between the rice storehouse and the main storehouse.

Concrete walls enclose the east and south sides, the southern part of the west side and the eastern part of the north side, 126 metres in all. East of the service gate, a 23-metre earthen wall with a tiled coping rises from a granite base. Both the outdoor toilet and the well house carry a boarded screen on the side facing the service gate, a small sign that sightlines from the back entrance were considered when the yard was planned.

A Coworking Space in a Registered House

The Misedoi Family Residence remains in private hands. The family and a local nonprofit, the Owase Kurashi Support Center, now run the main house as Share Space Doimise, a members-only shared office and coworking space. Mie Prefecture's workation portal lists a 20-mat hall, the Western-style reception room, the veranda and the garden as places to work.

City and prefectural listings give the facility's address as 14-2 Asahi-cho. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the site as 72 Asahi-cho, with the service gate at 79-2. For map searches, the facility address is the more reliable of the two.

Visiting and Getting There

The Misedoi Family Residence does not, as a rule, admit people who come only to see the cultural property. The official Share Space Doimise website states that entry is limited to coworking members and to participants in scheduled events. The service yard with its storehouses and well house falls under the same policy, and no public viewing days had been announced as of 17 September 2026.

What anyone can see from outside is the concrete main gate and wall along the old Kumano road and the timber service gate and earthen wall on the northern side street. This is a residential neighbourhood, so avoid pointing a camera through the gates into the grounds.

The nearest station is Owase on the JR Kisei Line. Mie Prefecture's listing puts the house an 11-minute walk from the nearest station or bus stop, and about 1.5 kilometres, or 5 minutes by car, from the Owase-kita interchange of the Kisei Expressway. Owase City's tourism site notes free parking. Enquiries go to the Owase Kurashi Support Center (+81-597-49-0011).