Northern Culture Museum Main House

A Landlord's House Dated by Its Ridge Tablet

The Northern Culture Museum Main House (北方文化博物館主屋, Shuoku) in Somi, Konan Ward, Niigata City, is a two-storey timber residence of 1887, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000.

The Northern Culture Museum Main House is the heart of the Ito family's country seat. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the completion date is known from a ridge tablet. The house faces east, has a hipped roof (Yosemune-zukuri) with its entrance on the gable side (Tsumairi), rises two storeys, and covers 636 square metres, with a Buddhist altar room among the rooms at the back.

The museum calls it a great modern Japanese-style mansion built by the fifth head of the family. The agency's record for the Sanrakutei names the master carpenter as Saito Kinzo.

Reason Within the Scale

The Northern Culture Museum Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency describes an enormous building that nonetheless relies on rational traditional carpentry, including extensive use of full-height posts running through both storeys.

According to the museum, the roof beams are stacked seven tiers deep, and a single cedar purlin with natural fluting, cut and shipped from Aizu, runs 30 metres. The front of the house held the spaces for running the estate, including the counting room (now the museum office) and the family sitting rooms.

Traces of repeated alterations remain, which the museum reads as evidence of a household that once kept around 60 servants.

From the Earthen Passage to the Roof Beams

You enter the Northern Culture Museum Main House along a long earthen passage (Doma). Beside it, in order, come the counting room, the sitting rooms and the kitchen. The three linked sitting rooms served the head of the family as reception rooms, and they display calligraphy by Kusakabe Meikaku of one of the family's house precepts. The kitchen alone covers about 70 tsubo, with its hearths and great jars; look up at the smoke vent.

The Naka-no-ma, once the maids' workroom, now hosts temporary exhibitions. A wide staircase added for visitors leads upstairs, where maids and the family's children once lived and where the family history is now displayed. Look up through the opened ceiling to see the seven tiers of beams.

In spring the museum recommends the view from the upper floor of the Northern Culture Museum Main House down onto the great wisteria in the centre of the grounds.

Visiting the Main House

The Northern Culture Museum Main House is the centrepiece of the museum, and its interior is included in admission. Shoes come off inside. Staff offer a guided tour of about 15 minutes, with priority for reservations.

Keep photos and posts to personal use and avoid showing staff and other visitors. The great hall lies to the south across the courtyard, linked by a covered passage.