Iritakenishi Family Residence Main House

What is the Iritakenishi Family Residence Main House?

The Iritakenishi Family Residence Main House (入嵩西家住宅主屋, Iritakenishi-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a single-storey timber farmhouse in Shinkawa, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, built around 1911 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 31, 2007.

It has a hipped roof in the Yosemune-zukuri form, covered in tile, and a building area of 155 square meters. The house stands near the middle of a plot bounded by roads to the north, east and south, with its front turned to the south. The national record also notes alterations made around 1955.

Why It Was Registered: A Large Red-Tiled Farmhouse

The Iritakenishi main house was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a large traditional farmhouse with many rooms under a red-tiled roof, the kind of building that gives Okinawa its distinctive look.

Ishigaki City adds that the man who built it was a dedicated and successful farmer. Tradition says he chose fine island-grown timber, including inumaki (Podocarpus), mokkoku and fukugi, and that the roof was tiled in red from the start.

Around 1955 the earth-floored part of the kitchen was boarded over. Even so, the city considers that the Iritakenishi main house keeps nearly all of its original form.

What to Look For: A Front Row and a Back Row

Inside, the Iritakenishi Family Residence Main House divides into two rows of rooms. Along the sunny south front are two rooms of six tatami mats and two of four mats, the side of the house that caught the breeze and received guests.

Behind them, on the north, run the uraza (back rooms, usually used for sleeping and storage) and a plank-floored room. At the west end is a kitchen with a wooden floor.

The city points out that the kitchen was made especially spacious. For a working farm that fed many hands, that makes sense.

From outside, the thing to notice is the roof. A short ridge and low eaves sweeping down on all four sides let the red tiles wrap the whole single-storey house.

Visiting the Main House

The Iritakenishi main house is still a private home, and its interior is not open. You can only see the exterior from the road.

The Iritakenishi Family Residence Main House stands inside the stone wall, near the middle of the plot. How much of it can be seen from the road has not been confirmed, so the photographs in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database are a useful supplement. Please take photographs only from the road and respect the privacy of the residents.