Former Ito Family Residence (Tainai)

Former Ito Family Residence in Tainai

The Former Ito Family Residence (旧伊藤家住宅, Kyū Itō-ke Jūtaku) in Kurokawa, Tainai City, Niigata Prefecture, keeps three working buildings from the estate of the Ito family, village headmen of the Edo period: a rice storehouse of the late Edo period, a storehouse of 1906 and a workshop of 1953, all registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 5, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All three belong to Tainai City.

The Agency's report on the registration says the Itos served as ōjōya, the headmen who oversaw a group of villages, and later produced village mayors. The large plot is now split: the eastern half with the three buildings belongs to the city, the western half to the Ito family, and the main house that stood on the western side burned down in 1986. Tainai City's heritage plan refers to the buildings as those of the Kurokawa Ito main family.

Because other properties share the name, this site calls it the Former Ito Family Residence (Tainai).

Kurokawa, a Post Town on the Yonezawa Road

According to the city's plan, Kurokawa became the seat of a small domain in 1724, when Yanagisawa Tsunetaka, fourth son of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, arrived with an income of 10,000 koku. A post town grew up along the Yonezawa Road, with regular markets.

The plan lists the three buildings of the Former Ito Family Residence among the heritage that tells the story of the old post towns and the Yanagisawa domain. Traffic fell away after the Uetsu railway line opened in 1924, but houses of the headmen and shrines still mark the old townscape.

Three Buildings, a Century Apart

The Agency records the storehouse in the north of the former plot, its ridge running east to west; the rice storehouse to its southeast, running north to south; and the workshop near the middle of the south side, running east to west. All are two-storey buildings with gabled tile roofs. The two storehouses are fire-resistant earthen Dozo-zukuri with a detached protective roof, the Okiyane type, while the workshop is timber-framed.

In order of age, the rice storehouse comes first, then the storehouse of 1906 and the workshop of 1953. With the main house gone, what survives is the working side of the estate: rice storage, sorting and bagging, and the family's strongroom, spread over roughly a century.

All three were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each building has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting

The city owns the three buildings of the Former Ito Family Residence, but no official information on regular opening or visits was found. Tainai City's heritage plan of March 2025 lists works to make the buildings usable, and special openings of the registered buildings, among its future measures. Anyone hoping to see them should ask the Tainai City Board of Education, which handles cultural properties.

The western half of the plot is owned by the Ito family (Agency for Cultural Affairs), so take care over the boundary between city land and private property when viewing from outside. No official information on public transport or parking was found either.