Okahashi Family Residence Main House, Tea Room and Corridor

About the Okahashi Family Residence Main House, Tea Room and Corridor

The Okahashi Family Residence Main House, Tea Room and Corridor (岡橋家住宅主屋・茶室及び渡廊下, Okahashi-ke Jūtaku Omoya, Chashitsu oyobi Watari-rōka) is the main house of 1917 at the centre of the Okahashi estate in Ozukucho, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, registered together with its early Showa additions as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 August 2020 (No. 29-0303).

It is a timber building, single-storey with a partial upper floor, under a tiled roof, with a building area of 399 square metres. That makes it by far the largest of the fifteen registered Okahashi buildings, 2.8 times the size of the next largest, the nagayamon gatehouse at 142 square metres. The registration covers the house, the covered corridor running north from it, the tea room at the end of that corridor, and a wall.

The house stands a little south of the middle of the plot and faces north. Its front garden lies on that side, closed at the far end by the late Edo detached reception room.

Why the main house was registered

The Okahashi Family Residence Main House, Tea Room and Corridor was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as refined and imposing, as befits the house of a forest-owning family that served for generations as village headmen.

The plan is what supports that judgement. An earth-floored service area runs down the east side, and to the west are nine rooms in three rows of three. With the sliding partitions removed they become one great hall; closed, they divide into rooms for different uses. The layout answers the needs of a household that entertained many visitors.

A formal room with a tokonoma projects from the northwest corner, and from it the corridor leads north to the tea room. The corridor also gives access to the inner storehouse, and the lodging for the head forest steward adjoins the northeast corner. The main house is the hinge that ties the estate's buildings together, which is why it anchors the fifteen registrations.

What to look for on the main house

Start with the roof. The central block is raised a level and roofed in Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable form, with lean-to roofs (Geya) running round all four sides. The high main roof and the low skirt of lean-tos step down in two tiers, softening the bulk of a very large building.

Inside, the east and west halves are clearly distinct. The Doma earth floor on the east was the working and kitchen side; the rows of tatami rooms on the west were for receiving guests and family life. It is the basic farmhouse arrangement, scaled up to suit a headman's household.

The Agency records that the 1917 house received additions in the early Showa period but does not say which parts they were. That the projecting formal room, the corridor and the tea room are registered together with the house records a Taisho building that kept being extended and used.

Visiting the main house

The Okahashi Family Residence Main House, Tea Room and Corridor stands in the middle of the estate, surrounded by other buildings and walls, so it is hard to see as a whole from the lanes outside. The interior, including the tea room and corridor, is not open.

The estate is private and no public openings were announced as of September 2026. Directions, and a guide to the buildings that can be seen from the road such as the nagayamon gate, are on the Okahashi Family Residence page.