Minami Family Residence (Gose)

About the Minami Family Residence (Gose)

The Minami Family Residence (南家住宅, Minami-ke Jūtaku) in Oaza Ikenouchi, Gose City, Nara Prefecture, is the homestead of the former village headman (Shōya) of Ikenouchi, and five of its structures, centered on a main house built between 1751 and 1830, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 14, 2021. The five are the main house, the annex reception wing, the tool storehouse, the gatehouse and garden gate, and the wooden fence, all at 923-1 Ikenouchi.

Ikenouchi lies at the southern edge of the Nara Basin. According to the report of Japan's Council for Cultural Affairs, the Minami family were dealers in medicinal ingredients who also served as the village headman. What survives is the layout of a household that combined a trade in medicines with village office.

Two other properties share the name Minami Family Residence, one in Hannan, Osaka Prefecture, and one in Yasuda, Kochi Prefecture. They belong to unrelated families. This page covers the one in Ikenouchi, Gose.

Three Stages in the Making of the Minami Family Residence

Set side by side, the dates in the national database show the Minami Family Residence growing in three stages.

• The main house, the core of the homestead, went up in the later Edo period, between 1751 and 1830.
• The annex reception wing to the south of the main house and the tool storehouse to its southeast followed at the very end of the Edo period, between 1830 and 1868.
• The gatehouse with its garden gate and the wooden fence along the road were built in 1912, the first year of the Taishō era.

The main house was also remodeled in 1912, in the last months of the Meiji era. Meiji 45 and Taishō 1 are the same calendar year, so the remodeling of the house and the building of the new street front happened in a single year. The main house was renovated again around 1965 and the tool storehouse around 1970.

All five were entered on the register on October 14, 2021, under consecutive numbers 29-0326 through 29-0330, each on the grounds that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

How the Minami Family Residence Is Laid Out

The plot of the Minami Family Residence meets the road on its north side. The Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions and the council report place the five structures as follows.

• The gatehouse is a long Nagayamon running east to west along the northern edge, and the wooden fence continues west of it for about 24 meters to close off the street side.
• The main house stands in the northern part of the plot and faces north, so anyone passing through the gate is met by its front.
• The annex reception wing lies south of the main house, with verandas on its north and south sides looking onto the garden.
• The tool storehouse stands southeast of the main house, on the eastern edge of the plot.
• The garden gate is set in a short wall that runs south from the southwest corner of the gatehouse, and it closes with a pair of sliding doors.

Gatehouse and fence present a formal face to the road. Behind them is the main house, and further back the reception wing and the storehouse. The Agency describes the main house as the core of a wealthy farming homestead of the Nara Basin.

Visiting the Minami Family Residence

The Minami Family Residence is a private home, and Gose City's list of registered properties gives the owner as a private individual. It is not open to the public, and neither the grounds nor the buildings can be entered. We found no announcement of open days or special viewings.

From outside, what you can see is mainly the gatehouse and the wooden fence facing the road. The main house, the reception wing, and the storehouse stand inside the fence. Please take photographs only from the public road and keep clear of the residents and of passing traffic.

The nearest station is Tamade on the JR Wakayama Line, about 1.3 kilometers away by road, or roughly a 20-minute walk. Kintetsu Gose Station, the terminus of the Kintetsu Gose Line, is about 2.9 kilometers away, so allow around 40 minutes on foot from there.