Nakagawa Family Residence Connecting Corridor

About the Nakagawa Family Residence Connecting Corridor

The Nakagawa Family Residence Connecting Corridor (中川家住宅渡廊下, Nakagawa-ke Jūtaku Watari-rōka) is a single-storey timber corridor wing built in 1915 in Imazushicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 19, 2014. It has a tiled roof and a building area of 30 m², and was renovated in 2001.

It links the main house of the Nakagawa Family Residence with the annex and forms one edge of the inner courtyard. Besides the passage itself it holds the bath and toilet, so it also served the private, back-of-house side of family life.

An L-Shaped Corridor Around the Courtyard

The Nakagawa Connecting Corridor runs from the back of the main house to the annex, turning through a right angle on the way. Its roof is a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri form covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles. Behind the main house lies a courtyard, and the corridor wraps around its corner to reach the annex at the far side.

The wing is split lengthwise. The north side, facing the courtyard, is a wood-floored passage; the south side houses the bath, toilet and other wet rooms. You walk with the garden on one hand and the service rooms tucked away on the other.

Glass Windows and Frosted Transoms

On its north face, the Nakagawa Connecting Corridor is glazed up to the height of the door lintels, with a band of frosted-glass transom windows above. Nara City describes the combination of low solid wall, clear glass and transoms as elegant.

The result is a wall in three tiers: solid below, clear glass at eye level, frosted glass above. The passage stays bright but sealed from the weather. The courtyard planting shows through the glass, while the transoms let in a softer, diffused light.

Why the Nakagawa Connecting Corridor Stands Out

The Nakagawa Family Residence Connecting Corridor was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the nation. What both the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Nara City draw attention to is that it is enclosed. In Naramachi townhouses, the passage linking the main house to rear buildings was normally left open, a veranda with no walls or sliding doors.

Here the Nakagawa family glazed it in. Nara City reads the difference as a sign of the corridor's Taisho-period date and values it as a good example of how a modern-era Nara townhouse compound was put together. In a building this modest, the taste of its period shows clearly.

Seeing the Nakagawa Connecting Corridor

Because it stands behind the main house around the courtyard, the Nakagawa Connecting Corridor cannot be seen from the lane, and the interior is not open to the public as of October 2026. The compound is used for reservation-only cultural programs as Machiya Imazushi, and the operator's pages include photographs of a corridor and of the courtyard seen from the zashiki. Ask whether the corridor is included when you book. Directions and booking details are on the Nakagawa Family Residence (Nara City) page.