Nakamura Family Residence Main House

The Nakamura Family Residence Main House

The Nakamura Family Residence Main House (中村家住宅主屋, Nakamura-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) in Misato Yutaka, Azumino City, Nagano Prefecture, is a late Edo period farmhouse built sometime between 1751 and 1829, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 27, 2006.

The house sits slightly west of the center of the family plot with its front turned to the east. It measures 8 and a half ken by 7 and a half ken (1 ken, the traditional bay, is about 1.8 meters), for a building area of 243 square meters: roughly 15 meters on a side. It is a single-story timber building under a gabled roof of interlocking pantiles, entered through the gable end. That combination defines the honmune-zukuri farmhouse of central Nagano.

Because the two sides differ by only one bay, the plan is close to square. The deep, almost square footprint is what allows a honmune-zukuri house to present its broad triangular gable to the front.

Why it was registered

The Nakamura Family Residence Main House was registered under the criterion for buildings that serve as a model of their type. The feature the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out for dating is the fairly generous use of sashigamoi.

A sashigamoi is a deep lintel set between posts. It carries the head of the sliding doors and also works as a beam, so a builder who uses many of them can leave out intermediate posts. Take the doors out and the rooms open into one continuous space. The technique became common in farmhouses of the later Edo period, which is why it anchors the date of this house.

The Agency's database gives the period only as late Edo, expressed as the range 1751 to 1829. No published source narrows the construction to a single year.

Reading the floor plan

Inside, the north side of the house is a beaten-earth floor (doma), with the kitchen behind it. The south side is raised and floored, with six rooms grouped around the oe, a room of 9 tsubo, or about 18 tatami mats. In Nagano farmhouses, oe is the usual name for the family living room, and here it is the hub of the six rooms.

Standing in front of the house and looking west, you would have the earth-floored work area to your right and the living rooms to your left. Cooking and farm work are kept to the north, while daily life and the reception of guests take the sunnier south side.

East of the Nakamura Family Residence Main House lies the forecourt. The front storehouse stands on its southern edge, and a gate and fence run between the house and the storehouse to divide the forecourt from the inner yard. The main house is the anchor of that whole arrangement.

Visiting

The Nakamura Family Residence Main House is a private home and its interior is not open. The grounds cannot be entered, and there is no published contact for viewing or photography requests (checked September 2026).

The location of the homestead and general notes for visitors are collected on the Nakamura Family Residence (Azumino) page.