Tomita Family Residence

What Is the Tomita Family Residence?

The Tomita Family Residence (冨田家住宅, Tomita-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a prosperous Meiji-era farming family in Takayamacho, Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture; its main house was built in 1890, and nine of its buildings were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 29 November 2016. It occupies a terrace built up with Ishigaki stone walls at the foot of the hills in Takayama, a village on the upper Tomio River at the northern end of the Ikoma Mountains.

Nine buildings, including the main house, a gatehouse, storehouses, a reception wing and an annex, stand on stone walls of differing heights. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the view centered on the reception wing at the southwest corner as an estate landscape reminiscent of a castle.

The Tomita Family Residence is still a private home, and Ikoma City lists it as privately owned.

The Nine Registered Buildings

The nine buildings of the Tomita Family Residence were recommended by the Council for Cultural Affairs on 15 July 2016 and entered the register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 29 November 2016, carrying consecutive numbers 29-0240 through 29-0248. All nine were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The national database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main House: 1890, 2-storey timber building, tiled roof, building area 242 square meters, with gate and earthen wall
• Nagayamon Gate: mid-Meiji, single-storey timber gatehouse, tiled roof, 108 square meters
• Rice Storehouse and Roasting Barn: mid-Meiji, single-storey earthen-walled and timber sections, tiled roof, 70 square meters
• Inner Reception Wing: mid-Meiji, single-storey timber building, tiled roof, 85 square meters
• South Tool Storehouse and South Bedroom: mid-Meiji, 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse with single-storey room, 46 square meters
• North Tool Storehouse and North Bedroom: mid-Meiji, 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse with single-storey room, 48 square meters
• Annex: late Meiji, single-storey timber building, tiled roof, 28 square meters
• Miso Room: late Meiji, single-storey timber building, tiled roof, 11 square meters
• Well House: late Meiji, timber, tiled roof, 4.2 square meters

The database defines mid-Meiji as 1883 to 1897 and late Meiji as 1898 to 1912. Only the main house has an exact year. The sequence is still clear: the gate, storehouses and reception wing that frame the estate were in place by the mid-Meiji years, and the annex, miso room and well house followed in the late Meiji period.

An Estate on Stone Terraces

The Tomita Family Residence sits on a hillside that was leveled with stone walls, and the main house stands at the center of the terrace, facing south.

Along the southern front, the Nagayamon gatehouse runs along the top of the wall, with the rice storehouse and roasting barn continuing the roofline to the west. A sloping lane climbs from the road to the gate, and the small well house stands on its east side.

On the west, the inner reception wing juts out at the southwest corner of the wall, and the south and north tool storehouses with their attached bedrooms follow to the north. Each roof sits at a different height, stepping along the terraced wall, and this western face is the most varied view of the Tomita Family Residence.

To the north are the annex, linked to the north tool storehouse, and the miso room east of the main house. The annex faces the main house across a small garden, and the miso room stands beside the back door of the earth-floored kitchen. Where the southern and western buildings present the estate to the outside, these northern ones served the family's daily life.

Visiting and Getting There

The Tomita Family Residence is a private home and its interiors are not open to the public; no special openings were found in the sources checked. Please stay off the grounds and the lane leading up to the gate, view the buildings only from the public road, and keep any photography to what can be taken from there.

The nearest railway station to the Tomita Family Residence is Gakken Kita-Ikoma Station on the Kintetsu Keihanna Line, about 3 kilometers to the south in a straight line. Nara Kotsu's Tomio-Shoda bus line links Gakken Kita-Ikoma and Tomio stations with Takayama, and the estate is a walk from the stops in the village. Ikoma City's own survey notes that services are infrequent, so check the timetable before setting out.

As a landmark, Takayama Chikurin-en, a park with a museum of the local tea-whisk craft, lies about 400 meters southwest of the Tomita Family Residence.