Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei)

What Is the Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei)?

The Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei) (旧平林家住宅（一星亭）, Kyū Hirabayashi-ke Jūtaku Ichiboshi-tei) is an old family estate in the center of Ikusaka Village, Higashichikuma District, Nagano Prefecture, whose six buildings, ranging from a late Edo-period main house to an early Showa-period storage shed, were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 5 December 2019. The village of Ikusaka owns the estate, and it was the first nationally registered cultural property in the village.

Ikusaka presents the house as the birthplace of Katō Masaharu (1871 to 1952), a legal scholar born in the village in 1871. He studied civil procedure and bankruptcy law in Germany and France, became a professor in the law faculty of Tokyo Imperial University, and late in life served as the first chancellor of Chuo University. He also wrote haiku under the pen name Saisui.

Ichiboshi-tei is the name by which the household was known. The village's tourist guidebook refers to the family as "Hirabayashi (Ichiboshi)" and identifies the house as Masaharu's birthplace. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the reading as Ichiboshi-tei; the name is sometimes misread as Issei-tei.

Six Registered Buildings

All six buildings of the Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei) were entered together in the 94th round of registrations on 5 December 2019, under consecutive numbers 20-0554 to 20-0559, each for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The national database gives the following dates and sizes.

• Main house: late Edo period, extended in the early Meiji period; 2-storey timber building, tiled roof, building area 354 square meters
• East storehouse: 1840; 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse, tiled roof, 24 square meters
• West storehouse: 1856; 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse, tiled roof, 59 square meters, with a north gate
• South storehouse: 1859, repaired in the late 2000s to 2010s; 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse, tiled roof, 20 square meters, with a wall
• South gate: late Edo period; timber, tiled roof, opening 1.6 meters wide, with a wing wall on each side
• Storage shed: early Showa period; single-storey timber building, tiled roof, 24 square meters

The database defines the late Edo period here as 1751 to 1830 and the early Showa period as 1926 to 1945. Only the three storehouses carry an exact year; the main house, the gate and the shed are dated by period. At 354 square meters, the main house covers roughly three times the combined area of all three storehouses.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The main house of the Former Hirabayashi Family Residence stands in the middle of its plot along the old road, facing south. Behind it, on the north side, the east and west storehouses stand side by side; the Agency for Cultural Affairs credits the pair with giving the old road a solid, substantial streetscape. The south storehouse sits southwest of the main house with its ridge running north to south, and the south gate extends eastward as a gate-and-wall from the southeast corner of the main house. The storage shed stands at the north end of the east edge of the site, its east face turned toward the village road.

The arrangement is simple: the main house at the center, two storehouses to the north, a third to the southwest, the gate to the southeast and the shed to the east. The Agency describes the south storehouse as a late-Edo store that, with the main house, preserves the look of the estate in its day, and it treats the shed as part of the same ensemble. Together the six buildings span about 150 years.

The main house also keeps traces of the leaf tobacco that was once a local specialty of Ikusaka: a large workroom above the earth-floored Doma and a long raised Koshi-yane ventilator along the ridge. The details of each building are covered on its own page.

Visiting the Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei)

The Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei) is owned by the village but is not normally open to the public. The Ikusaka Board of Education is preparing it for preservation and use. According to the village newsletter, the plan for fiscal 2025, backed by a Nagano Prefecture regional development grant, includes clean-up work with local residents, workshops, guided viewings, a sketching day and new information signs. One such guided viewing, the Ichiboshi-tei Kengakukai, was held on 2 March 2025. To see the interior, check the village newsletter (Kōhō Ikusaka) or ask the Board of Education about upcoming viewing days.

On other days the estate can only be seen from outside. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the east and west storehouses shape the streetscape of the old road and that the shed stands on the east edge facing the village road. Please stay on the public road and do not enter the grounds.

The nearest railway station is Akashina on the JR Shinonoi Line. From Akashina-ekimae, take the Ikusaka village bus (Saigawa Line) to the Yakuba-mae stop; the timetable shows a ride of about 17 to 20 minutes. The bus does not run on Sundays or public holidays, and some Saturday services are cancelled. The Former Hirabayashi Family Residence (Ichiboshi-tei) lies about 100 meters in a straight line from the Yakuba-mae stop and about 400 meters west of the Ikusaka no Sato roadside station (both figures are map-based estimates). By car, the Ikusaka Tourist Association gives the drive from Matsumoto Castle to the village as about 45 minutes.