What Is the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin?
The Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin (旧稲葉家別邸大書院, Kyū Inaba-ke Bettei Daishoin) is a formal reception hall built in 1902 in Usuki City, Oita Prefecture, as the centrepiece of the Usuki residence of the former Inaba lords, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 8, 2008. It is a single-storey timber building with a pantiled roof and a building area of 190 square meters.
The Daishoin stands in the middle of the estate and faces south, so its entrance lines up with the street gate. Of the six registered structures of the villa, it is the only one the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates to 1902 exactly rather than to around that year.
A Gable-Fronted Hall and a Porch Built for Guests
The Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin has a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) roof set gable-end on, so the triangular gable, rather than the long side, looks south toward the gate. Eaves (Hisashi) wrap the sides and back. At the front a separate, generously sized porch, also hip-and-gabled, pushes out from the main body. Walk up the paving from the gate and its gable fills your view.
Oita Prefecture's official tourism site notes that the entrance has a Shikidai, the low boarded step where guests and palanquins were received, and that the house was built of good cedar and cypress. Usuki City's floor plan shows a second, family entrance just east of the main one. Keeping the guests' door and the household's door apart was standard practice in samurai houses.
Two Rooms Made for Receiving People
Inside, the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin is a pair of rooms laid out north to south: an upper room (jō-no-ma) with a decorative alcove and a side alcove, and a second room of eighteen and a half tatami mats. A tatami-floored corridor runs along the south face, and open verandas wrap the other three sides. A room of eighteen and a half mats is not for family life. It is sized for seating a crowd of visitors at once.
Usuki City calls the Daishoin the omote, the front of the house where guests were first shown in, and points to the Nageshi beam running around the upper room as a mark of the formality of samurai housing. The Agency for Cultural Affairs likewise reads the building as a space made for official receptions.
Step out onto the veranda of the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin and the garden opens up to the north, close enough that rooms and garden read as one composition.
Why the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin Was Registered
The Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin was registered as a building that serves as a model of design. The date is 1902, but the sequence of porch with shikidai, alcoved upper room, second room, corridor and veranda carries the reception suite of a daimyo household into Meiji-era Usuki.
For a while the hall was used as a ryōtei, a traditional restaurant. Usuki City's leaflet says that this use worked with the exterior as it was, so the structure came through without major change, and the city describes the hall as a large shoin that still shows the standing of the former lords.
Seeing the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin
The Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin is the core of the main block that Usuki City opens to visitors as the Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki. You follow the paving from the gate and go in through this porch, and admission is charged. Pause halfway along the path to take in the porch gable and the shikidai head-on.
Inside, look first at the nageshi and the alcoves of the upper room, then the size of the second room, then the tatami corridor on the south. From the veranda on the garden side you can see how the north face of the Daishoin meets the garden. The main block is also hired out for events, and viewing is restricted on those days. We found no official guidance on photography (checked September 2026).
Q&A
- When was the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin built?
- In 1902, as the main hall of the house the former Inaba lords used when they returned to Usuki from Tokyo.
- What kind of building is the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin?
- A single-storey timber reception hall with a gable-fronted hip-and-gable roof and a building area of 190 square meters. It has a large porch at the front and inside an alcoved upper room and a second room of eighteen and a half mats.
- What was the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin used for?
- It was the omote, the formal rooms where guests were received. For a time it was later run as a restaurant, but its structure was not greatly altered.
- When did the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin become a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- On July 8, 2008, registered as a building that serves as a model of design.
- Can I go inside the Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin?
- Yes. Usuki City opens it as part of the Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki, and adult admission is 330 yen. Viewing is restricted on days the main block is hired out.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin (旧稲葉家別邸大書院) |
|---|---|
| Location | 6-6 Gionsu, Oaza Usuki, Usuki City, Oita Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | 2008 (registered) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 190 m² (single-storey timber) |
| Owner | Usuki City |
| Public Access | Open to the public (admission charged, as the Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki) |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00007326
- Cultural Heritage Online: Former Inaba Family Villa Daishoin
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/143088
- Usuki City: Former Usuki Domain Lord Inaba Family Shimoyashiki (Japanese)
- https://www.city.usuki.oita.jp/docs/2014013000108/
- Usuki City: Inaba Family Shimoyashiki leaflet (PDF, Japanese)
- https://usuki-kanko.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/inabakeshimoyashiki.pdf
- Oita Prefecture official tourism site: Inaba Family Shimoyashiki and Former Hirai Family Residence (Japanese)
- https://www.visit-oita.jp/spots/detail/4641
Last verified: 2026.09.29
