Inoue Family Residence

A Farming, Forestry and Sake Household in Hita

The Inoue Family Residence (井上家住宅, Inoue-ke Jūtaku) is a rural family estate in Tsurugawachi-machi, Hita City, Oita Prefecture, whose seven buildings and one stone wall, built between 1831 and 1914, were each registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 January 2003.

Tsurugawachi lies north of central Hita, away from the old merchant streets that draw most visitors to the city. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Inoue family farmed here while also managing forest land and brewing sake. The eight registered structures read almost like an inventory of that mixed livelihood: a main house and its gate, a sake brewery, storehouses for rice and miso, a barn that doubled as a cowshed, and a stone wall enclosing the garden.

Hita City lists all eight under a single heading, Inoue Family Residence, dated from the late Edo period through the Taishō era. It helps to see the estate this way first, as one household's working equipment, before looking at any single building.

How the Inoue Family Residence Grew

The oldest building is the storehouse of 1831 (Tenpō 2), followed by the sake brewery of 1847. The Meiji era added the miso storehouse in 1875 and the barn in 1902.

The decisive year was 1914 (Taishō 3). The present main house went up then, and the rice storehouse is said to have been built at the same time. The gate and the stone wall are dated to around 1914 as well. In other words, the family kept its Edo-period storehouses in use, added working buildings during Meiji, and then remade the house and its formal front in the early Taishō years.

That last phase shows in the main house itself: a large Japanese dwelling under a Sangawara-buki tiled roof, with a burst of Western-style decoration reserved for the side that faces arriving guests.

Layout of the Inoue Family Residence

Working from the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions, the entrance to the Inoue Family Residence sits on the south side of the plot. A private lane leads to the gate, which opens onto the forecourt of the main house. East of the gate stands the large sake brewery, and beyond it, at the southeast corner, the storehouse is joined to the brewery's east end.

The rice storehouse lies north of the storehouse. Outside the estate's east edge runs a river, at a lower level than the house, and a flight of steps near the rice storehouse leads down to the water, suggesting goods once came and went by riverboat. From the rice storehouse the stone wall continues north, closing off the garden that lies north of the main house's formal rooms.

The miso storehouse stands behind the kitchen end of the main house. At the northwest corner an L-shaped barn turns its back to the estate and opens a central doorway onto the road to the west. The pattern is easy to read: the formal front to the south, storage along the river to the east, working buildings to the rear.

The registration criteria split along the same lines. The Inoue Family Residence Main House was registered as a building that would not be easy to reproduce, while the other seven were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting the Inoue Family Residence

The Inoue Family Residence is a private home, and the national database lists no owner. It is not among the public cultural facilities promoted by Hita City, and there is no published admission arrangement. Assume that the buildings and grounds are closed to visitors.

Because the gate faces a private lane, do not walk up the lane; view the estate only from the public road. No photography rules are published, but people live here, so keep windows and residents out of the frame.

The estate lies about 8 kilometres north-northwest of JR Hita Station in a straight line. We could not confirm a public transport route, so a car or taxi from central Hita is the practical choice. Hita City's Cultural Properties Division (tel. 0973-24-7171) handles enquiries about the city's heritage. Details of each structure appear on the individual building pages.