Former Masuoka Family Residence

What Is the Former Masuoka Family Residence?

The Former Masuoka Family Residence (旧増岡家住宅, Kyū Masuoka-ke Jūtaku) is the home of a former soy sauce brewing merchant in the old castle town of Uda-Matsuyama, in Ōuda-Nishiyama, Uda City, Nara Prefecture, and its Main House of 1903 was registered with the Annex, the Inner Storehouse and the Outer Storehouse as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 6, 2024. The four buildings carry consecutive registration numbers, 29-0358 to 29-0361, and all were entered on the same day.

The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the registration on November 24, 2023. The buildings date from the late Meiji period to the early Showa period. The Main House on the street and the Outer Storehouse at the back of the plot date from the Meiji period, while the Annex and the Inner Storehouse in the middle of the site belong to the early Showa period (1926 to 1945). The Main House and the Annex were renovated in 2017.

A Soy Sauce Brewer in Uda-Matsuyama

Uda-Matsuyama grew up below Uda-Matsuyama Castle and became the commercial center of the Ōuda area. According to Uda City's tourism site, merchants here traded in local products such as Uda washi paper and Yoshino kuzu starch, and the town filled with Machiya townhouses as a result. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Former Masuoka Family Residence as the house of a merchant family that once brewed soy sauce in this former castle town, with its Main House forming part of the historic streetscape.

The plot runs back from the street: the Main House at the front, then the Annex and the Inner Storehouse, and the Outer Storehouse along the northern edge. Nanone, the guesthouse that now occupies the Masuoka residence, says the house was built in the Meiji period by the Masuoka family as a soy sauce brewery. The guesthouse also says the land was once the residence of Okamoto Ippō, a physician and the younger brother of the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. That claim comes from the guesthouse alone; neither the Agency for Cultural Affairs nor Uda City mentions it.

The national database lists the owner as Nature Core Science Co., Ltd., while Uda City's page on registered properties gives the owner as a private individual. The two records do not agree.

The Four Buildings and Why They Were Registered

Taken in order from the street, the four buildings of the Former Masuoka Family Residence are as follows, based on the descriptions published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

• The Main House, built in 1903, is a 2-storey wooden townhouse with a building area of 170 square meters. Its street front has wooden lattices and black-plastered Mushiko-mado windows.
• The Annex stands behind the Main House. Partly 2 storeys and 39 square meters in area, it dates from the early Showa period and has a glazed corridor along the whole south side of its ground floor.
• The Inner Storehouse, also early Showa, sits in the center of the plot. It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse of 32 square meters, linked on its east side to the Annex by a corridor.
• The Outer Storehouse, from the late Meiji period, faces south from the middle of the plot's northern edge. Covering 53 square meters, it joins a rice storehouse and a miso storehouse under one structure.

All four were registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In the agency's reading, the Main House shapes the street, the Annex and the Inner Storehouse together form the center of the plot, and the Outer Storehouse defines its outer edge. What makes the set worth seeing together is that the merchant house survives from front to back, from the shopfront on the street to the storehouses at the rear.

Visiting the Former Masuoka Family Residence

The Former Masuoka Family Residence now operates as Nanone, a small guesthouse, and Uda City also notes that the house is used for lodging. Access to the interior is essentially for overnight guests. The guesthouse says that guests who ask can be shown the storehouses and the upper floor of the Main House. Lunch is also served by advance reservation. No arrangement for drop-in visits to the interior could be found. Rates and booking details are on the Nanone website.

Without a booking, visitors can see the street front of the Main House, with its lattices and mushiko-mado windows, from the public road. The Annex and the Inner Storehouse stand in the middle of the plot and are hard to see from outside. Because the Former Masuoka Family Residence is a working guesthouse, please stay off the property, keep photography to the exterior from the road, and be mindful of guests.

By public transport, take the Kintetsu Osaka Line to Haibara Station, then a Nara Kotsu bus bound for Ōuda and get off at Nishiyama, about 15 minutes away. Buses for Ōuda also leave from Sakurai Station on the same line, a ride of about 26 minutes. The Former Masuoka Family Residence lies about 250 meters east of the Nishiyama stop in a straight line, roughly a 5-minute walk. The guesthouse has parking for 2 cars, apparently intended for guests.