Kawase Family Residence

About the Kawase Family Residence

The Kawase Family Residence (河瀬家住宅, Kawase-ke Jūtaku) is an Edo-period samurai house in Tamoncho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, whose five structures, led by a main house built in 1856, were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2006.

The five are the main house, a storehouse, the front gate, an earthen wall and a south earthen wall. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as a former samurai dwelling, and in its note on the storehouse says the property preserves the layout of a doshin household. A gate and walls screen the plot from the lane; the main house sits behind them, with the storehouse to its north.

Tamoncho and the Magistrate's Officers

During the Edo period the shogunate ran Nara through the Nara Magistrate's Office, and its day-to-day work fell to two ranks of retainers: yoriki, the senior officers, and doshin, the constables below them. Tamoncho, where the Kawase Family Residence stands, was the quarter where those officers lived.

A Nara City report on the view along Ichijo-dori records that present-day Tamoncho was once known as Tamon Yashiki, the housing ground of the yoriki and doshin. Hōren Bridge was nicknamed Sengoku Bridge, the report adds, because a thousand koku of rice were carried across it each year to pay them.

The Kawase house is one of the dwellings from that samurai quarter to survive with its gate, walls, house and storehouse still together.

Five Structures and the Work of 1942

The five Kawase structures were entered in the 50th round of registration as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties nos. 29-0107 to 29-0111. The Agency's database dates them as follows.

• Main house: 1856, enlarged in 1942
• Storehouse: late Edo period (1751 to 1829), moved on rollers in 1942
• Front gate: late Edo period (1751 to 1829), relocated here around 1942
• Earthen wall: late Edo period (1751 to 1829)
• South earthen wall: around 1942

Read together, the dates point to a major campaign on the whole Kawase Family Residence around 1942. Tatami rooms and a tearoom were added to the west half of the main house, the storehouse was shifted by Hikiya, the front gate was brought from Yakushi-in, a former sub-temple of Tōdai-ji, and the south earthen wall was built on either side of it. Only the late Edo earthen wall has no work recorded for that year.

Nara City's list of registered properties calls the 1942 work on the main house a remodeling, where the Agency's database calls it an extension. The two sources describe the same year's work in different words.

The registration criteria differ by structure: the main house was judged hard to reproduce, the storehouse a model of form, and the gate and both walls contributors to the historic landscape.

How the Kawase Estate Is Laid Out

Pieced together from the Agency's descriptions, the plan of the Kawase Family Residence runs roughly like this. The main house faces south with its ridge running east to west, and the storehouse stands to the north, linked by a covered passage. The front gate occupies the southeast corner of the plot. East of the gate the south earthen wall runs north to south; to the west it wraps round in a Masugata-like enclosure.

Along the south face of the main house runs the older earthen wall. At its west end it turns north and closes off the west side of the storehouse. The west edge of the site slopes, and the wall steps down it in stages.

On paper the Kawase registrations sit on two lots, 28-1 for the gate and south wall and 29-2 for the house, storehouse and earthen wall. On the ground they form one continuous compound from the gate to the storehouse at the back. Each structure has its own page covering construction and details.

Visiting the Kawase Family Residence

The Kawase Family Residence is a private property, and no public or special opening could be found (checked September 2026). Visitors can only view it from the lane; the gate itself cannot be entered. The front gate and the south earthen wall face the street, while the main house and storehouse stand inside the walls. There is no official guidance on photography, so if you take pictures from the road, keep the household's privacy in mind.

From Kintetsu Nara Station, take a Nara Kotsu bus bound for Hannyaji (Aoyama Jutaku and similar destinations) and get off at Tegaicho. The residence is about 400 m west of the stop in a straight line, a walk of 5 to 6 minutes. On foot from Kintetsu Nara Station it is about 1 km to the north, or 15 to 20 minutes. Close to the Tegaicho stop stands Tegaimon, a gate of Tōdai-ji, the temple complex from which the Kawase front gate originally came.