Sato Family Residence Annex

A Sukiya Annex by the Harbour

The Sato Family Residence Annex (佐藤家住宅離れ, Satō-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is a single-storey wooden annex built in the late Meiji era, around 1909 according to Hiji Town, at Fukae in Oga, Hiji Town, Oita Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 August 2020.

According to the national database, the Sato Annex stands on a plot facing the inlet of Oga fishing harbour, with its front turned north to the street. Its hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof is laid with Sangawara-buki tiles, a lean-to Geya roof runs around all four sides, and a small gabled porch projects at the front. The building area is 96 square metres.

Hiji Town describes it as a modern Japanese-style building that carries the look of the old Fukae port into the present. It is one of only three buildings in the town on the national register.

Why It Was Registered

The Sato Family Residence Annex was registered in the 96th round, as number 44-0232, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape.

The national database calls it an elegant annex built on a Sukiya-zukuri vocabulary, the light, refined manner that grew out of teahouse architecture. Well-off households of the Meiji to early Showa years often built a separate annex for guests or for a retired head of the family, and gave it exactly this kind of treatment. Finding one facing the street of a small harbour gives Fukae an unexpected touch of polish.

What to Look At

Layered roofs

The hipped main roof of the Sato Annex slopes down on all four sides, and below it the lean-to roof wraps the whole building. The two tiers of tile give the annex a low, spreading silhouette.

The gabled porch

On the north front, facing the street, a porch with its own gabled roof steps forward from the main block. Its triangular end set against the broad hipped roof marks the entrance clearly.

Rooms and verandas

Inside, a board-floored room and two tatami zashiki rooms run in a line from north to south, with verandas on the east and south. The plain room sits on the street side and the formal rooms lie farther from the road.

Polished logs

The eave beams and Taruki rafters are polished logs, stripped of bark and left round rather than squared. That use of natural timber is a hallmark of sukiya design, and one of the reasons the database singles the building out.

Visiting and Getting There

The Sato Family Residence Annex is privately owned, and as of October 2026 there was no notice of public opening. Hiji Town notes that some of its cultural properties are not open to the public for conservation reasons and asks anyone hoping to visit to contact its Cultural Properties Section in the Social Education Division in advance (telephone 0977-73-3222).

Because the annex faces north onto the street, its porch and hipped roof can be seen from the road. Where the east and south sides with their verandas can be seen from has not been confirmed. Please do not enter the grounds.

The nearest station is Oga on the JR Nippō Line. The annex lies about 3.3 kilometres south of the station in a straight line, so a car or taxi is the practical option. No visitor parking is advertised.

About the Name

The name is read Satō-ke Jūtaku Hanare. The town is Hiji, not "Hinode" as the characters might suggest, and the district is Oga. A separate group of four buildings registered as the Sato Family Residence stands in Taketa, also in Oita Prefecture, but it belongs to a different family.