Suyama Family Residence

The Suyama Family Residence

The Suyama Family Residence (巣山家住宅, Suyama-ke Jūtaku) in Kiso-Hirasawa, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, is the home of a family of lacquerware makers whose main house, raised in 1933, and two storehouses were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on December 4, 2000 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All three were registered as models of design, and all are owned by Sakai Sangyo Co., Ltd.

The Agency describes Hirasawa as a village on the Kiso Road that continues north from the post town of Narai, and notes that the Suyama family worked in lacquerware for generations.

How the Property Is Laid Out

The main house is a two-storey building with its entrance on the long side, facing the street. Behind it, across a garden, the East Storehouse stands in the middle of the plot; the West Storehouse sits beside it across a narrow passage, and the two share one continuous sheet-iron roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The East Storehouse, known in the household as the Shimo-no-kura, held furnishings and tableware; an ink inscription on its ridge beam dates it to 1932. The West Storehouse, the Kami-no-kura, was built for grain. Its ridge beam carries an inscription of 1899, but it was moved here in the early Showa era, and the Agency notes that it now serves as a workshop.

Put together, the main house and the East Storehouse went up within a year of each other, and an older storehouse was brought in to stand alongside. Each building has its own page with its structure and details.

A House in a Lacquer-Working Town

The village around the Suyama Family Residence was selected on July 5, 2006, as the Kiso-Hirasawa Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (Shiojiri City). Its category is a lacquer-working town, and the city notes that it is the only one of its kind among Japan's preservation districts.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Shiojiri City, the town has prospered since the Edo period on lacquered everyday wares, and lacquerware shops still line the old Nakasendo highway. Plots are long and narrow: the main house stands on the street, and beyond an inner courtyard come the nurigura, workshops for applying lacquer, and other outbuildings.

The Suyama family plot follows the same sequence of street-front house, garden and storehouses behind. With the West Storehouse now a workshop, the three buildings show how a lacquer-making household used its land.

Visiting

The Suyama Family Residence is company-owned, and no official information on interior access was found. Visitors can view the exterior from the street but should not enter the property. The two storehouses stand behind the main house, and whether they can be seen from the street was not confirmed.

The nearest station is Kiso-Hirasawa on the JR Chuo Main Line; the Shiojiri City Tourist Association notes that the historic townscape begins right outside the station. On the map, the residence lies about 120 metres northwest of the station in a straight line. Drivers can use the Urushi-no-Sato Hiroba car park, about 3 minutes on foot from the townscape.