Former Honda Family Residence (Nakazato-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture)

The Oldest Farmhouse in Nagasaki Prefecture

The Former Honda Family Residence (Nakazato-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture) (旧本田家住宅(長崎県長崎市中里町)) is a mid-Edo thatched farmhouse at Nakazato-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, which in 1969 was designated an Important Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a hipped thatched house 12.0 by 6.9 metres with lean-tos on the west, east and south, owned by Nagasaki City.

The Agency notes that the Honda were a middle-ranking farming family of the area and that the house dates no later than the early eighteenth century.

Plan and Roof

Nagasaki City explains that the standard Japanese farmhouse has four living rooms in a grid plus an earthen work area, but here the two rooms nearest the earthen area are merged into one, giving a three-room plan.

The timbers are heavy, the roof is framed with forked struts and no ridge posts, and the thatched roof is extended by a lower tier of eaves, a style called momozuki. Inside there is a floor of split bamboo.

What to Look For

The Agency notes that, restored to its original form, it had openings only on the front, a very closed house, and that it is a well-preserved small old farmhouse and a fine example for the prefecture.

Nagasaki City considers it the oldest surviving farmhouse in the prefecture; the Honda family had settled here by the Meiwa era (1764 to 1772).

Visiting the Former Honda Family Residence (Nakazato-machi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture)

Nagasaki City gives 10 minutes on foot from the Fujidana bus stop. The road is narrow and there is no parking, so it cannot be reached by car.

Enquiries: Nagasaki City cultural properties section, 095-829-1193.