Tanaka Family Residence (Hase, Matsusaka)

A Post-Station Household at the Eastern Edge of Hase

The Tanaka Family Residence (Hase, Matsusaka; 田中家住宅, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku) is the compound of a family that served as the waki-honjin, the secondary official inn, of Hase-juku on the old Wakayama Kaidō highway in Iitakacho Hase, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture; its main house of 1896, nine other buildings and a stone retaining wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 2, 2018. The eleven entries carry consecutive registration numbers, 24-0252 to 24-0262, and all were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

The house sits at the eastern tip of a terrace and has long defined the eastern entrance to the old post town. The highway runs straight through the property, splitting it into two halves. The northern half is backed by the small hill of Hase Shrine; the southern half drops steeply to the Kushida River, so walking the road you pass between Tanaka buildings on both sides.

On the north side the main house faces the road, with the east storehouse beside it; the front earthen wall runs from the east face of the main house, turns the southeast corner and meets the storehouse. Behind the main house, to the northwest, stands the new storehouse, and the east and west earthen walls mark the side boundaries. Across the road the front barn faces the main house, and behind it, toward the river, projects the front zashiki known as Senjitei. Farther west, set back from the road, is the west barn, with the south earthen wall closing the western edge of that plot. On the river cliff to the southeast rises a stone retaining wall 8.1 metres high.

The Largest Merchant House on the Road

Family tradition holds that a man descended from the Sasaki clan of Ōmi Province settled in Hase in 1559 and took the name Tanaka Hikozaemon. Through the Edo period the family farmed, dealt in timber and brewed sake, and ran the waki-honjin of Hase-juku; the principal inn, or honjin, was the Nakamuraya.

The Tanakas gave up brewing in 1885 and have worked in forestry ever since. Most of the present buildings were put in order by the fourteenth head of the house, also Tanaka Hikozaemon, between 1896 and around 1897. The front zashiki of 1883 is older; the front barn followed in 1900, the front earthen wall in 1902, the east storehouse and east earthen wall in 1905, the west earthen wall in 1911 and the new storehouse in 1912, while the west barn dates from the Taishō era (1912 to 1926).

Mie Prefecture's report on the registration calls the ensemble the largest Machiya-type house in the post town, and Matsusaka City describes it as a rare survival of an upper-class merchant compound that adapted to the modern age.

Stone and Plaster Throughout

Taken together, the Tanaka buildings share a clear set of rules. All four earthen walls sit on bases of river cobbles laid in the diagonal Tanizumi pattern, rise in white plaster and carry pantiled roofs. The road front of the east storehouse repeats the stone base and plaster, so wall and storehouse read as one surface.

Within that scheme each piece is tuned to its place. The south end of the west earthen wall, where it meets the road, flares out in dressed stone and is crowned with an ogre-faced Onigawara tile. The south earthen wall at the back is faced with old roof tiles pressed into the clay and banded with interlocking round tiles. Down by the river the stone retaining wall uses the same cobbles, climbing 8.1 metres like a castle rampart above the water.

Visiting and Getting There

Part of the Tanaka Family Residence in Hase is open as the Tanaka Family Museum (波瀬田中家資料館) at 213 Hase, Iitakacho. It opens on Thursdays and Sundays by reservation made by the previous day. Hours are 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from March to October (last entry 3:00 p.m.) and 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in November and December (last entry 2:30 p.m.); the museum has announced a winter closure in January and February. Admission is 500 yen for adults and 250 yen for elementary pupils, reservations are taken for two or more people, and children below school age are not admitted, to protect the buildings and collections.

Only part of the house is shown, and which interiors you can enter varies with the season and events. The front zashiki, Senjitei, has been opened on separate days, for example April 19 and 20, 2025, and April 18, 2026. The official information says nothing about photography, so ask when you book. The exteriors of the main house, east storehouse, the two barns and the earthen walls can be seen from the road on any day.

By car, the Matsusaka City Tourism Association gives about 1 hour 30 minutes from Matsusaka Interchange on the Ise Expressway. Buses from the Matsusaka Station side into the Iitaka district are infrequent, so check current schedules before relying on public transport. Opening details were checked on the official website in September 2026 and may change.