Yoshida Family Residence

A Village Headman's House at Oshika with Three Registered Buildings

The Yoshida Family Residence stands at 624 Oshika, Akiha ward, Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, where 3 buildings were entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 31 January 2003. They are registered properties rather than designated ones. The oldest, the main house, dates from 1883.

The 3 are the main house, the reception wing and the storehouse.

Of the main house, the Agency records that it is said to have been built anew on the taking of an adopted son-in-law into the family.

Two Buildings Raised as People Came and Returned

Why each was built is bound to what happened in the family.

The main house, of 1883, is said to have been built on the adoption of a son-in-law.

The reception wing, of about 1924, is said to have been rebuilt when his widow came back to her home after his death.

A house raised as one person was received; a wing rebuilt as another returned. Two events answer to two buildings.

At the Hara residence, the period in the classification and the years in the date field disagree: a matter of the record itself.

Here the occasion of building is what the record carries, and in both cases it is given as what is said: handed down rather than documented.

A Storehouse Called a Water Store

The storehouse bears a name that comes from the ground it stands on.

The Agency records that, lying between two great rivers, it stands on an earthen mound about a metre high and is called a water store.

Between the rivers, earth is heaped to keep the building clear of the water. The storehouse that stands on it takes that name.

At Sama House, the basement is of reinforced concrete to follow the slope: a measure for building on a hillside.

Here flat ground is raised before building. The mound answers to water rather than to slope.

Its construction, the record adds, shows the posts on the outside, as storehouses of this district do. Name and construction alike belong to the place.

A Projecting Bay for the Household Shrine

One corner of a room is thrown out beyond the wall.

In the reception wing, 2 rooms of 8 mats run along a veranda on the east, with smaller rooms of about 5 mats to north and south of them.

At the western end of the southern small room, the record continues, a bay of about 4 mats projects to hold a shrine for the household's gods, and this it calls the building's distinguishing feature.

Such a shrine has its place within the house. Here it sits not within a room but in a bay thrown out from it.

At Manpukuji, the guardian shrine is a building of its own, covering 1.0 square metre. There it stands apart as a separate structure.

Here it is a projection within a building. Where such a place is put differs from one house to the next.

Visiting

The property is at 624 Oshika, Akiha ward, Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture. All 3 carry the same address.

The main house is timber, single-storeyed with a part of 2 storeys, tiled, covering 306 square metres. It turns its northern gable end to the highway, and its distinguishing feature is a gabled roof over the north-eastern part with the entrance set on the long side.

A hall of 15 mats rises high within, with the earthen-floored space to its north and, to its south, a formal room and an earth-floored veranda.

A ridge tablet gives the name of the carpenter who built it: the maker is known.

No owner is recorded, and opening and terms follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.