Shimizu Family Residence

A Rice Merchant's Estate on the Izumo Road

The Shimizu Family Residence (清水家住宅, Shimizu-ke Jūtaku) is a late Meiji-era merchant's estate in Kawanabe, Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, whose four buildings, the main house, the barn, the storehouse, and the gate with its well house, were listed together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 28 April 2009. The estate lies about a five-minute walk from the Tsuyama Interchange of the Chūgoku Expressway, and its frontage faces the Izumo Ōrai, the old highway that ran west toward Izumo.

According to Okayama Prefecture's heritage notes, the family is said to have dealt in rice and grain in the late Meiji period. The main house is traditionally dated to the fourth decade of Meiji (1897 to 1906), and the other three buildings are thought to be of the same late Meiji generation. The trade itself rests on family tradition, but the Agency for Cultural Affairs records, quite separately, that the storehouse was first used to hold rice. Two independent sources point toward the same household business.

None of the buildings has been frozen in time. The main house was remodelled around 1970 and the barn was altered in the later Shōwa era. What the listing protects at the Shimizu Family Residence is a working household compound, still in use as a home.

Why Four Buildings Were Listed on One Day

The four buildings of the Shimizu Family Residence carry consecutive register numbers: 33-0230 for the main house, 33-0231 for the barn, 33-0232 for the storehouse and 33-0233 for the gate and well house. They were entered in the 63rd round of registrations, with official notice published on 14 May 2009.

Two different criteria were applied. The main house alone was listed as a model of architectural form. The barn, the storehouse, and the gate and well house were listed for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, the house was judged on its own design, while the outbuildings were judged as the pieces that make up the estate around it.

The Agency describes the barn simply as one of the facilities that form the household compound. On its own, a barn or a storehouse like these could stand on many farms in the region. Taken together around the main house, the four buildings let you read the layout of a Meiji household that traded rice on a highway, which is why the Shimizu Family Residence is best understood as one estate rather than as separate structures.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The Agency's descriptions are enough to reconstruct the plan of the Shimizu Family Residence in outline. The main house stands toward the north of the site, facing south, with a separate guest wing, the hanare zashiki, attached to its west side.

East of the house, the barn runs north to south, joined to the house by a roof that drops down from the house's east wall. The gate continues south from the barn's southern end on the same axis, and the well house sits south of the gate. House, barn, gate and well house thus form one continuous line of buildings down the eastern side of the estate.

The storehouse stands west of the main house, facing east. The space in front of the house, between the eastern range and the storehouse, would have served as the working yard. That reading comes from the positions given in the official descriptions; no record has been found of how the Shimizu household actually divided up the site.

From the road, what you see first are the gate and the well house. The Agency credits these two with giving the estate a proper front toward the Izumo Ōrai.

Visiting and Getting There

The Shimizu Family Residence is a private home. Okayama Prefecture lists it as open to visitors free of charge, but because the family may be out, you need to phone ahead (0868-26-0467; checked 25 September 2026). Neither the extent of interior access nor the rules on photography have been published, so ask about both when you call.

There is parking for 10 to 15 cars, and a minibus can get in. By car, the estate is just off the Tsuyama Interchange of the Chūgoku Expressway, close enough to walk in about 5 minutes. The nearest railway station is Higashi-Tsuyama on the JR Kishin and Inbi lines, about 5 minutes away by car.

The address is 889 Kawanabe Furuyashiki, Tsuyama City. Note that the place name 河辺 is read Kawanabe here, not Kawabe, which helps when asking directions or searching maps.