Shiohara Family Residence Main House

About the Shiohara Family Residence Main House

The Shiohara Family Residence Main House (塩原家住宅主屋, Shiohara-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a two-story timber farmhouse of the early Taisho period in Imai, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2004. It was the family home of the Shioharas, who served as village headmen for a settlement on newly cleared land, and it covers a building area of 464 square meters.

The main house sits in the middle of the plot, with the other three registered buildings placed around it. The rice storehouse stands in front and to the right, and the silkworm rearing house runs along the back. It is by far the largest of the four, and the others take their orientation from it.

Why It Was Registered

The Shiohara Family Residence Main House was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In its note on the gate, the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls this a grand main house and says the gate was given a dignity to match it. The whole homestead is composed around the Shiohara main house.

It was also a workplace. The Agency and Matsumoto City both record that the upper floor was used mainly for raising silkworms. The family lived downstairs and kept silkworms upstairs, and together with the dedicated silkworm house behind it, that arrangement shows how much of this household's life revolved around silk.

A Ventilating Ridge and Two Front Doors

The roof of the Shiohara main house is an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles, and a Koshi-yane runs along almost the entire ridge. This is a smaller raised roof set on top of the main one, leaving a gap that lets light and air into the space below. Silkworms need a steady change of air, and a ventilator running the full length of the ridge was very likely built with the upstairs rearing rooms in mind.

Walk around to the front and you find two entrances. The one in the middle opens onto the Doma, the earth-floored work area. To its left is a second, more formal entrance with a Shikidai, the raised step where guests of standing were received. Separating the everyday door from the ceremonial one was a mark of status, fitting for a headman's household.

An annex, or hanare, projects from the back of the Shiohara Family Residence Main House, and in the northeast corner a storehouse has been enclosed within the body of the house rather than standing apart. The big hip-and-gable roof, the long ridge ventilator, the paired entrances and the built-in storehouse together give a clear sense of the scale of a prosperous farmer's home of the Taisho period.

Visiting the Shiohara Family Residence Main House

The Shiohara Family Residence Main House is still a private home and its interior is not open. No announcement could be found of any occasion when the upstairs rearing rooms or the formal entrance can be seen.

From outside, look for the outline of the ventilator running along the ridge. The front of the main house lies behind the gate and the rice storehouse, so how much of it you can see from the road depends on where you stand. Please do not enter the property. Directions and general visiting notes are on the Shiohara Family Residence page.