Yusa Family Residence (Ishinomori, Tome)

A farmstead built around a mid-Edo main house

The Yusa Family Residence (Ishinomori, Tome) is a farmstead in the Ishinomori district of Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture, whose main house dates from the mid-Edo period; on 2 March 2006 six of its buildings were each entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The six are the main house, a reception hall (hiroma), a clay-walled storehouse, a plank storehouse, a stable and a miso store. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house to between 1661 and 1750. The clay storehouse, the plank storehouse and the miso store are Meiji-period, the stable is Taisho-period and the hall is early Showa. Living, receiving guests, storing rice and miso, and keeping horses each ended up with a building of its own, put up in different generations.

The buildings carry consecutive registration numbers, 04-0056 to 04-0061, and were added together in the 49th round of registrations, announced on 23 March 2006. On Tome City's own list of cultural properties, these Yusa Family Residence buildings are the earliest national registrations in the city.

How the six buildings sit on the site

The ground falls away to the east. The main house stands in the northwest part of the plot, facing east. South of it, along the west side, is the hall, with the clay storehouse to the hall's east. A covered passage links the hall to the plank storehouse on its south side. The stable lies northeast of the main house, and the miso store sits on a raised terrace to the northwest.

In effect the house and the hall form a north-south spine on the west, and the storehouses and stable gather in front of it to the east. The division of roles is clear on paper: the main house, with its earthen-floored work area, served daily life and farm work, while the hall contains nothing but two formal tatami rooms with decorative alcoves, a space for guests.

Roof forms follow the same logic. The main house, hall and stable have hipped roofs in the Yosemune-zukuri style; the three storehouses have simple gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roofs. The hall and stable keep their original Kayabuki thatch beneath a temporary covering of sheet iron, the main house is roofed in sheet steel and the clay storehouse in natural slate.

Registration criteria

Registered buildings are assessed against three criteria. At the Yusa farmstead the main house was registered as a building that would be difficult to reproduce, while the other five were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The main house is valued in its own right; the outbuildings are valued for the ensemble they make with it.

Visiting and getting there

The Yusa Family Residence (Ishinomori, Tome) is private property. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives no owner, and neither the Agency nor Tome City lists open days or a way to arrange a visit. Please do not enter the grounds uninvited.

The farmstead lies in Ishinomori, about 7 kilometres in a straight line from Ishikoshi Station on the JR Tohoku Main Line. Public transport does not realistically reach it; you would need a car.

Photographs of each building are published in the Agency database and on the Cultural Heritage Online portal. For questions about cultural properties in the city, contact the Cultural Properties Division of the Tome City Board of Education in Nakada, Kaminuma (tel. 0220-34-2332).