Iioka Family Residence

Iioka Family Residence: an old household on the Ise Honkaido at Taguchi

The Iioka Family Residence (飯岡家住宅, Iioka-ke Jūtaku) is a historic homestead in Motokamitaguchi, Taguchi, in the Murō district of Uda City, Nara Prefecture, whose three buildings, an inner storehouse of 1790, a main house of the late Edo period and a rice storehouse of the late Meiji period, were entered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 10 September 2010.

According to Uda City, the Iioka family is said to have served as Shōya, the village headman, of Kamitaguchi village during the Edo period. The house went by the trade name Tsuchiya and was used in particular as lodging for travellers of high rank. A signboard reading "Taishinden-yado" survives; tradition holds that it was hung at the front when the lord of the Kishū domain stayed here on a pilgrimage to Ise.

Taguchi was one of the post towns on the Ise Honkaido (伊勢本街道), the main road from the Yamato region to the Grand Shrines of Ise. Uda City lists the roadside villages within its borders, from west to east, as Haibara, Takai, Akabane, Morokino, Taguchi and Kuroiwa, and describes the climb from Morokino over the Ishiwari Pass down to Taguchi as the hardest stretch. For a traveller heading to Ise, Taguchi was the first village after coming down from the pass. The city describes the Iioka Family Residence as a farmhouse on the east side of the Taguchi settlement that also took in travellers as an inn.

Three registrations and their dates

The three buildings of the Iioka Family Residence were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers: the main house as 29-0189, the inner storehouse as 29-0190 and the rice storehouse as 29-0191. All three qualified under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. The national Council for Cultural Affairs recommended them for registration on 16 July 2010.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the inner storehouse to 1790 (Kansei 2), the only building on the property with a construction year known to the year. The main house is placed in the late Edo period, 1751 to 1829; Uda City likewise notes that its exact date is unknown but estimates the late Edo period. The rice storehouse belongs to the late Meiji period, 1898 to 1911, and is the youngest of the three.

Their building areas are 210 square metres for the main house, 37 square metres for the inner storehouse and 39 square metres for the rice storehouse: one large thatched house with two tile-roofed storehouses beside it.

How the Iioka Family Residence is laid out

The main house of the Iioka Family Residence stands at the centre of the plot with its ridge running north to south. The inner storehouse sits to the northeast of the main house along a stone retaining wall, its ridge turned east to west. The rice storehouse stands on the eastern edge of the property, again with a north-south ridge, and the Agency describes it as the building that finishes the view along the east side of the homestead.

Both storehouses therefore lie east of the house, set at different angles. The inner storehouse, used for household goods, stays close to the main house, while the rice storehouse for the harvest stands out toward the boundary. More than 100 years separate the two.

The construction and details of each building are covered on its own page.

Visiting the Iioka Family Residence

We found no information about public opening or interior visits to the Iioka Family Residence, and no admission fee or opening hours are published. Uda City lists the owner as a private individual.

Visitors should view the buildings only from the road and should not enter the grounds. Please do not linger at the gate or point cameras into the property; this is a family home.

The nearest station is Murōguchi-Ōno on the Kintetsu Osaka Line, about 7.6 kilometres away in a straight line (calculated from map coordinates). We have not confirmed a bus route or timetable from the station.

Names and spellings of the Iioka Family Residence

The registered names are 飯岡家住宅主屋 (main house, read shuoku), 飯岡家住宅内蔵 (inner storehouse, uchigura) and 飯岡家住宅米蔵 (rice storehouse, komegura). In English the property is called the Iioka Family Residence.

Uda City's own page lists it with the prefix "former" (旧飯岡家住宅). The Agency gives the address as Murō-ku Taguchi Motokamitaguchi, while the city writes it without "ku". The signboard is also spelled two ways: Uda City writes 太真殿宿, while a newspaper report at the time of registration gave 大眞殿宿.