Former Inaba Family Villa

What Is the Former Inaba Family Villa?

The Former Inaba Family Villa (旧稲葉家別邸, Kyū Inaba-ke Bettei) is the Usuki residence of the former lords of the Usuki Domain in Usuki City, Oita Prefecture, and six of its structures, centred on a reception hall built in 1902, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 8, 2008. On site and in the city's own literature it goes by another name, the Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki, usually shortened to Inaba-ke Shimoyashiki (稲葉家下屋敷).

The Inaba were a daimyo house moved to Usuki from Gujo Hachiman in Mino Province in 1600, a reward for their service at the Battle of Sekigahara. They held the 50,000-koku domain for about 270 years, until the abolition of the domains in 1871 ended the rule of the fifteenth lord, Inaba Hisamichi. Like other former daimyo families, the Inaba then moved to Tokyo. The Former Inaba Family Villa was built so that they would have a proper house to stay in whenever they came back.

Those visits were not rare, according to a leaflet published by Usuki City. From Tokyo the family kept investing in the local economy, putting money into the 119th National Bank and into Rukeisha, a company set up by former retainers of the domain, and this villa is described as their base in town.

A Samurai-Style House on the Old Third Bailey

In the Edo period the ground under the Former Inaba Family Villa lay within the third bailey (san-no-maru) of Usuki Castle, a quarter of domain offices, rice granaries and the houses of senior retainers. The villa is a Meiji building, yet the city presents it as a house that keeps the manner of a samurai residence very strongly. It brought the formality of a lord's household back onto land that had served the domain for centuries.

For a period the Former Inaba Family Villa was run as a ryōtei, a traditional restaurant. The city's leaflet notes that this use worked with the existing exterior, so the overall structure of the reception hall survived without major change. The property now belongs to Usuki City. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records repairs to the gate in 1989 and to the kitchen and the outer wall and east gate in 1990.

The Six Registered Structures and How They Fit Together

Six structures of the Former Inaba Family Villa are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, carrying consecutive registration numbers 44-0141 to 44-0146. The Daishoin is dated 1902 and the other five to about 1902.

• Daishoin (main reception hall): single storey, 190 square meters
• Living Quarters (御居間, On'ima): single storey, 112 square meters
• Kitchen: two storeys, 122 square meters
• Storehouse: two-storey earthen storehouse, 28 square meters
• Gate: timber gate 2.7 meters wide
• Outer Wall and East Gate: a wall 45 meters long with a gate 2.3 meters wide

The Daishoin, the Living Quarters and the Kitchen were registered as buildings that serve as a model of design. The Storehouse, the Gate and the Outer Wall and East Gate were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The split matches the plan of the estate: rooms for living and receiving on one side, the pieces that frame it from the street on the other.

The Gate of the Former Inaba Family Villa opens south onto the street. Straight ahead, in the middle of the plot, the Daishoin faces south to meet it. A tatami-floored corridor leads east from the Daishoin to the Living Quarters, the Kitchen stands south of the Living Quarters, and the Storehouse sits south of the Kitchen. The Outer Wall runs east from the side of the Gate and ends at the East Gate, a service entrance. The garden spreads out to the north of the buildings.

Usuki City describes the Daishoin as the omote, the formal front where guests were received, and the Living Quarters as the heart of the oku, the private rooms of the family. Walking from the entrance through the Daishoin and along the corridor to the Living Quarters and the Kitchen, you pass from one to the other. Each structure has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting the Former Inaba Family Villa

Usuki City opens the Former Inaba Family Villa to the public as the Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki. It is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. Admission is 330 yen for adults (high school age and over) and 160 yen for elementary and junior high school students. Usuki residents enter free with ID. Combined tickets covering two sites (710 yen for adults, including the Usuki Stone Buddhas) and four sites (1,140 yen for adults) are also sold (checked September 2026).

The main block, meaning the Daishoin, the Living Quarters, the Kitchen and the garden, can also be hired for events, and on those days viewing is restricted. The city posts the dates on its website, so check before you go. Pets are allowed in the garden only. We could not find any official guidance on photography inside the buildings (checked September 2026).

On the west side of the same grounds stands the Former Hirai Family Residence, the house of a high-ranking samurai built around 1859, reached on foot through the garden of the Former Inaba Family Villa.

The Former Inaba Family Villa is about a 15-minute walk from Usuki Station on the JR Nippo Line. By car it is about 10 minutes from the Usuki Interchange on the Higashi-Kyushu Expressway, and the map in the city's leaflet marks a municipal car park nearby.