Goto Family Residence (Hita)

Goto Family Residence (Hita)

The Goto Family Residence (後藤家住宅) in Kuma, Hita City, Oita Prefecture, is the property of the Goto family of timber merchants: the main house of 1887 and the retirement quarters, zashiki-gura and east and west storehouses were registered as 4 Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 23, 2008 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Their registration numbers run consecutively from 44-0156 to 44-0159.

According to Hita City's regional plan for cultural properties, the Goto family traded in timber under the house name Yamayoshi (山吉) from 1887. Hita is a forestry town, where logs of Hita cedar were once lashed into rafts and floated down the Mikuma River (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).

Other Goto Family Residences stand in Yonago and Oita City; this page covers the one in Kuma, Hita.

Four Buildings from Street to River

The main house, a 2-storey timber townhouse, faces east onto the street with its hip-and-gable roof turned gable-end to the road and a Namako-kabe dado (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Behind it, on the Shode River (庄手川), stands the single-storey retirement wing, linked to the main house by a covered passage.

Against the north side of the retirement quarters is the Zashiki-gura, a storehouse below and a formal room above; further north are the west storehouse along the river and the east storehouse at right angles to it (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The storehouses are at 2-192 Kuma, a different lot from the 2-80 address of the other 3 buildings.

The main house dates from 1887, the retirement quarters from the late Meiji era, the storehouses from 1917 and the zashiki-gura from 1929, so the property took shape between the Meiji and early Showa eras (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each building has its own page.

A Stone Wall along the River

On the river side of the Goto Family Residence, a stone wall runs from one building to the next. Under the retirement quarters it is mortared river stone (Nerizumi) to the south and coursed stone (Nunozumi) to the north, with steps down to the water at the north end; the zashiki-gura and the river side of the west storehouse stand on mortared stonework continuing the same line (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency registered the retirement quarters and zashiki-gura as contributions to the historic landscape, and the main house and storehouses as models of design. Hita City lists the Goto Family Residence among the properties of its heritage theme on living with the rivers, and notes that in Kuma, rear reception rooms and zashiki-gura lining the river give the water town of Hita its character.

Visiting

The Goto Family Residence (Hita) lies about 800 metres west-southwest of JR Hita Station on the Kyudai Line, in a straight line. No official information on interior access was found (as of November 2026). The gable end of the main house can be seen from the street on the east side.