Okamoto Family Residence Annex

What Is the Okamoto Family Residence Annex?

The Okamoto Family Residence Annex (岡本家住宅離れ, Okamoto-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is a single-storey timber detached room built in 1906 at the center of the Okamoto Family Residence plot in Yagicho 2-chome, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 November 2016. At 30 square meters, it is the second smallest of the six registered buildings.

It lies at the far end of the Connecting Corridor, beyond the Store and Main House on the street, and the Inner Storehouse adjoins it on the north. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as marking the innermost point of the sequence of living spaces that begins at the main house.

One Eight-Mat Room and a Storehouse Anteroom

The Okamoto Annex has a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof. Lean-to eaves, called Geya, extend at the front and the back, and each shelters a veranda.

Inside is a single tatami room of eight mats. On its south side is a decorative alcove with shelves, the kind of display space known as a Tokonoma. On the north side is a board-floored room that doubles as the anteroom of the Inner Storehouse next door, separated from the tatami room by fusuma sliding panels. With the panels closed, the room is a quiet sitting room; with them open, it runs straight into the passage to the storehouse.

Placing a formal alcove and the storehouse entrance in the same small building shows how closely living and safekeeping sat together in a large merchant household.

A Room for the Family

The Agency values the Okamoto Family Residence Annex as quarters built for the family itself, a building that conveys part of the daily life of an upper-class merchant house. It was made for the household, not as a reception room for customers or guests.

The Annex sits in the middle of the plot, with the corridor to the east, the storehouse to the north and the courtyard in front. The family's room is placed as far as possible from the bustle of the shop, with the household storehouse right behind it. Among the six buildings, this is the one that best conveys the depth of the house.

It was registered for contributing to the historic landscape, as one of the buildings that, together with the main house and the corridor, enclose the courtyard.

Visiting the Okamoto Annex

The Okamoto Family Residence Annex is part of a private home and is not open to the public. It stands in the middle of the plot and cannot be seen from the Shimotsumichi road.

Only the street front of the Store and Main House is visible from outside. The layout of the site and directions are on the Okamoto Family Residence page.