Former Morie Family Residence (Tomi Village, Tomata District, Okayama Prefecture)

Former Morie Family Residence: A 17th-Century Farmhouse in the Chugoku Mountains

The Former Morie Family Residence (旧森江家住宅, Kyū Morie-ke Jūtaku) is a farmhouse in Tominishidani, Kagamino Town, Okayama Prefecture, thought to date from the late 17th century in the mid-Edo period, and was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1969.

Its official name, Former Morie Family Residence (Tomi Village, Tomata District, Okayama Prefecture), records where the house stood when it was designated. Tomi Village later became part of Kagamino Town, and the area is now the town's Tomi district in the northwest, ringed by mountains rising above 1000 meters. The house is owned by Kagamino Town.

The Morie house originally stood elsewhere in the old village. Okayama Prefecture notes that it was moved to a site near the Tomi Promotion Center, and local accounts give April 1976 as the date the relocation and reconstruction were completed. Farm and household tools once used in the village are displayed inside, so the rooms can be read together with the objects that filled them.

Why the Former Morie Family Residence Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency for Cultural Affairs regards the Former Morie Family Residence as a typical house of a middle-ranking farming family. It has a high proportion of solid wall, a simple structure and finishes done in old-fashioned techniques. Because it is among the older farmhouses in Okayama Prefecture and has survived in good condition, it was judged an important example of an ordinary rural dwelling.

Okayama Prefecture goes further and describes it as the oldest medium-sized mountain-village farmhouse in the prefecture. The interest lies in exactly that ordinariness: this is not the mansion of a wealthy landowner or village headman but the home of a family working the land in a remote valley.

The Agency's commentary places construction around the second half of the 17th century, and its building entry gives the end of the 17th century. Both dates are estimates based on the structure and building methods rather than on a dated inscription.

What to Look For at the Morie Residence

From outside, the Morie house is mostly roof. A deep thatched roof (Kayabuki) comes down low over the walls, leaving only a narrow band of building below the eaves. The Agency's database records the roof as hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) and gives the size as 15.1 meters by 8.7 meters. Prefectural and town materials count the house in structural bays, seven by three, but convert this to meters differently: Okayama Prefecture gives 15.8 meters by 7.4 meters, and the town's tourism page about 13.3 meters by about 5.9 meters. The prefectural text also calls the roof hipped (yosemune), which does not match the database.

The plan is of the type known as sanmadori hiroma-gata, a three-room layout built around a large living room. Beside the earthen-floored Doma at the front lies the itaba, a living room running the full depth of the house, and behind it are the okunoma, a formal room, and the nando, a sleeping room. The itaba is the largest room, and daily life centered on its sunken hearth (Irori). At the far end of the doma are the umaya, a stall for the family's horse or ox, and the cooking area.

Only the front of the house has openings. The other three sides are closed with thick plastered walls (Ōkabe), a design suited to harsh winters in the mountains. Light comes in from the front alone, and the rooms grow darker toward the back. The closed character the Agency points to is this wall-heavy shell.

The structure is plain. According to Okayama Prefecture, the span is narrow enough that there is no division into a main core and surrounding aisles, and only one line of large tie beams crosses the house. Local accounts add that every post is chestnut finished with an adze, that a thick central post (daikokubashira) stands among them, and that the roof frame is built with sasu, pairs of inclined rafters meeting at the ridge. Standing in the doma and looking up, you can see the heavy posts and the simple frame overhead.

Visiting the Former Morie Family Residence

The Former Morie Family Residence can be visited free of charge. Okayama Kanko Web lists opening hours of 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekdays, closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Okayama Prefecture instead gives 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and asks visitors to get in touch before viewing the interior. Because the sources differ and the house is sometimes unstaffed, call the Tomi Community Center (0867-57-2030) before you go. No published guidance on photography could be found, so ask on arrival.

By public transport, take the Tsuyama-Tomi line shared bus from JR Tsuyama Station to the last stop, Tomi Shinko Center-mae, about 90 minutes, then walk about 2 minutes. Buses are infrequent, so check the timetable in advance. By car the house is about 50 minutes from the Innosho interchange of the Chugoku Expressway, or about 20 minutes from the Kuse interchange of the Yonago Expressway, and there is parking for 10 cars.