Kuroki Family Residence

What is the Kuroki Family Residence?

The Kuroki Family Residence (黒木家住宅, Kuroki-ke Jūtaku) is an early Taisho-period house in Okobira, Ebino City, Miyazaki Prefecture, and its main house, zashiki wing, kitchen wing and storehouse were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on July 23, 2004.

The full address is 4983-4 Komaki, Ōaza Okobira; the district name 大河平 is read Ōkōbira. Miyazaki Prefecture's cultural property notes single out the Kuroki Family Residence as a leading example of kindai wafū, the modern Japanese-style architecture of the early twentieth century, in Ebino.

Two other properties in the prefecture carry the name Former Kuroki Family Residence: a house relocated to Miyazaki City and a shop-house in Takanabe. Neither should be confused with the house in Ebino.

The home of Major Kuroki Chikanori

According to Miyazaki Prefecture, the house was the residence of Kuroki Chikanori (黒木親慶), an army major whose postings included a stint as military attaché in Siberia.

A research project on his papers, funded through Japan's KAKEN grant program, fills in the rest. Born in Miyazaki in 1883 and dying in 1934, Kuroki was attached to the Russian army during the First World War and saw the revolution at first hand. When Japan sent troops into Siberia, he served as military adviser to the anti-Bolshevik Cossack leader Ataman Grigory Semyonov. He came home in 1920, and his papers are now held by the Miyazaki Prefectural Library.

The prefecture's notes also say that rooms added to the house to hide Semyonov after he went into exile still survive. Today the Kuroki Family Residence belongs to relatives of the film director Kuroki Kazuo, a native of Ebino, and it was used as a set for his film Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima (美しい夏キリシマ).

Four registered buildings and how they fit together

• Main House (registration no. 45-0026): early Taisho period; one-story timber building with a tiled roof, building area 218 square meters
• Zashiki Wing (no. 45-0027): late Taisho period; one-story timber building with a tiled roof, building area 70 square meters
• Kitchen Wing (no. 45-0028): early Taisho period; one-story timber building with a tiled roof, building area 69 square meters
• Storehouse (no. 45-0029): early Taisho period; two-story earthen storehouse with a tiled roof, building area 28 square meters

The four Registered Tangible Cultural Properties were entered on the same day under consecutive numbers, all on the criterion of serving as a model of design.

Put side by side, the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions sketch the layout. The main house stands at the center, with the kitchen wing running on from its northwest side. Behind it, the zashiki wing joins at the southeast corner in a staggered, flying-geese line, and the storehouse stands parallel to that wing. A corridor from the main house runs straight to the storehouse door, so all four buildings of the Kuroki Family Residence hang together around the main house, layering back from the front of the property.

Visiting the Kuroki Family Residence

The Kuroki Family Residence is a privately owned home. Neither Miyazaki Prefecture nor Ebino City publishes opening days or a way to arrange a visit, so assume that the buildings and grounds are closed to the public. If you pass by, stay off the property and avoid photographs that intrude on the household.

The registered address is 4983-4 Komaki, Ōaza Okobira, Ebino. Ebino-Iino Station on the JR Kitto Line serves this part of the city, and drivers usually approach from the Ebino Interchange of the Kyushu Expressway. No official directions to the house are published.