The Post Station Official's House on the Nakasendo
The Tezuka Family Residence (手塚家住宅, Tezuka-ke Jutaku) in Narai, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, is a group of three late Edo period buildings designated an Important Cultural Property on 4 December 2007.
Narai was the second of the eleven Kiso post stations counting from the north, strung along the Nakasendo highway between Kyoto and Edo. The town divides into three wards, upper, middle and lower, running south to north, and the Tezuka house occupies a plot roughly midway along the middle ward, on the west side of the road. It operates today as the Kamitoiya Museum.
The family took the name Kamitoiya, the upper wholesale office. From the early seventeenth century until the Meiji Restoration the Tezuka held the post of toiya, the official who managed the transport obligations of the station. Narai kept two such offices, upper and lower, alternating in half-month shifts. The toiya directed the relay of packhorses and porters and supervised subordinate officers: the toshiyori who assisted him and the umasashi who mustered horses for the courier duty. Each Kiso station was required to keep twenty-five porters and twenty-five horses standing ready. The Tezuka held the upper office by inheritance until the end of the shogunate and served terms as village headman as well.
Fire swept Narai in 1832. The main house and the detached reception wing that stand today were both put up in 1840 during the rebuilding that followed.
Three Buildings, Two Functions
What earned the designation is the way commerce and hospitality sit side by side under one roof and continue into the buildings behind. The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites criterion five, distinction in regional or school character, and notes that the construction dates are documented.
The main house fills the full street frontage: 12.4 metres along the ridge, 10.9 metres deep, two storeys, gabled, now roofed in sheet iron. Its ground floor carries a through-passage earth floor along the south side. On the north the front two bays are also earth-floored and open through a gate that served as the entrance for important guests, kept separate from the working passage. The raised floor area divides front and back on the line of the daikokubashira central pillar. In front, a board-floored room with a matted kaisho office set toward the passage; behind, three rooms running from the passage side as kitchen, a nine-mat room, and a corridor.
The framing differs between the two halves, and this is the detail to look for. Deep sashigamoi lintels stiffen the structure throughout. The front rooms take a joisted ceiling with a second storey above; the rear opens all the way to the roof, its beams crossed in a lattice and left exposed. Upstairs, the northern two rooms are matted under a saobuchi ceiling of split boards, and the southern half is boarded.
The street elevation repeats a Narai idiom in a more ambitious form. Projecting lattice screens front the board room and the office. Above the lintel line, arms thrown out from the horizontal member carry a second lattice at first-floor level, and the beam over that lattice acts as a fulcrum for the eaves purlin, throwing the eaves far out over the road. Short wing walls close each end of the upper lattice.
Behind the main house, reached along a corridor past an inner court, stands the detached reception wing of 1840: 9.9 metres by 15.9 metres, gabled, with a corridor and privy attached at the west. Six rooms sit three and three either side of a central corridor. The south file runs from the east as a six-mat room, an antechamber, and the jodan-no-ma raised room. The north file gives the new reception room, the middle ten-mat and the rear ten-mat. In the raised room the floor lifts by the depth of one sill above the antechamber and the alcove fittings are set out in full, with polished cedar poles used for the nageshi rails and lacquered edging on the saobuchi ceiling.
The storehouse came later, in 1863. Earthen-walled construction, 11.4 metres by 3.7 metres, two storeys, gabled. Two storehouses stand north and south with a passage between them, joined by the outer wall carried over the passage, and a separate okiyane roof set above the whole. Six volumes of construction documents and one house-plan diagram are included in the designation as attached objects.
Visiting the Kamitoiya Museum
The house is open as a museum, and the visit is worth planning around because the schedule is unusual. The Narai-juku Tourism Association gives opening hours as 10:00 to 17:00 from April through October, closing at 16:00 in March and November, and closed entirely from December through February, with irregular closures at other times. Admission on the association's Japanese page is 400 yen for adults and 200 yen for children, with a ten per cent group discount for parties of thirty or more. Telephone 0264-34-3101.
Inside, the collection runs to some four hundred items: around a hundred old documents, and three hundred or so pieces of ceramic, lacquer and household equipment accumulated across the family's roughly 270 years in office. Route maps of the post stations sit among them.
The Meiji Emperor stopped here for a midday meal during his progress along the Kiso road, and the room used on that occasion is preserved. Stone markers in front of the house record the visit and make the building easy to find from the street.
Narai itself was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 1978. Road improvements in the Meiji period routed the new highway away from the town, which is the accident that left roughly a kilometre of post-station streetscape largely intact. The Tezuka house is treated as a core building of that district.
Narai Station on the JR Chuo Main Line is about ten minutes on foot. Drivers leave the Nagano Expressway at Shiojiri and follow Route 19; allow thirty to forty minutes. Photography rules inside vary with the room and the exhibit, so ask at reception before shooting.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Tezuka Family Residence, and what are the opening hours?
- Yes, it is open as the Kamitoiya Museum. The Narai-juku Tourism Association gives hours of 10:00 to 17:00 from April to October, closing at 16:00 in March and November, with the museum closed from December through February and irregular closures at other times. Checking before travelling is advisable.
- How much is admission to the Tezuka Family Residence?
- The tourism association's Japanese listing gives 400 yen for adults and 200 yen for children, with a ten per cent discount for groups of thirty or more. The English section of the same page still shows 300 yen for adults, so confirming the current rate on arrival is sensible.
- Which buildings at the Tezuka Family Residence are designated, and when were they built?
- Three buildings hold the designation: the main house and the detached reception wing, both of 1840, and the storehouse of 1863. Six volumes of construction documents and one house-plan diagram are included as attached objects. All three were listed as an Important Cultural Property on 4 December 2007.
- What was a toiya, and what did the Tezuka family actually do at Narai?
- A toiya managed the transport duties of a post station, relaying packhorses and porters for officials and travellers. Narai maintained two such offices working alternate half-months, and the Tezuka held the upper office by inheritance from the early Edo period to the Meiji Restoration, also serving as village headman.
- How do I reach the Tezuka Family Residence in Narai?
- Narai Station on the JR Chuo Main Line is roughly ten minutes on foot, and the house stands midway along the middle ward on the west side of the old road. By car, leave the Nagano Expressway at Shiojiri and take Route 19, allowing thirty to forty minutes.
Basic Information
| Name | Tezuka Family Residence (手塚家住宅), Narai, Shiojiri City |
|---|---|
| Location | Narai 379, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structure); category: pre-modern / folk dwelling; criterion (5), regional distinction |
| Year Designated | 4 December 2007 (designation number 02515) |
| Quantity | 3 buildings; attached objects: 6 volumes of construction documents, 1 house-plan diagram |
| Dimensions | Main house 12.4 m by 10.9 m, two storeys, gabled; reception wing 9.9 m by 15.9 m, gabled; storehouse 11.4 m by 3.7 m, two storeys, earthen-walled |
| Owner | Not recorded in the national database |
| Public Access | Open as the Kamitoiya Museum; April to October 10:00 to 17:00, closing 16:00 in March and November, closed December to February |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Tezuka Family Residence, Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/00004231
- Shiojiri City — Tezuka Family Residence
- https://www.city.shiojiri.lg.jp/site/bunkazaihouhou/29573.html
- Narai-juku Tourism Association — Kamitoiya Museum
- https://www.naraijuku.com/shop/post-60/
- Matsumoto Area Official Tourism Site — Tezuka Family Residence (Kamitoiya Museum)
- https://discover-matsumoto-area.com/spot/131
Last verified: 2026.08.20
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Tezuka Family Residence (Narai, Shiojiri City, Nagano Main house 0.00 km
- Tezuka Family Residence (Narai, Shiojiri City, Nagano Separate tatami room 0.01 km
- Tezuka Family Residence (Narai, Shiojiri City, Nagano storehouse 0.02 km