Tokuyama Family Residence Main House

A Red-Tiled House Built from Salt-Cured Timber

The Tokuyama Family Residence Main House (渡久山家住宅主屋, Tokuyama-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a single-storey timber house built in 1925 in Ōkawa, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007. It stands in the middle of the homestead under a red Hongawarabuki tile roof, with a building area of 128 square metres.

Ishigaki City's notes record how it came to be built. The owner worked at the post office and bought building timber a little at a time, treating each batch by sūgan (潮乾, literally "tide drying"): burying the wood in beach sand for a set period so that insects would leave it alone. The house went up once enough had been stored.

The ridge beam, or Munagi, carries a brushed inscription giving the date as the 27th day of the fifth month of Taishō 14 in the old lunar calendar, the name of the master carpenter (棟梁宮良英良), and the words tenkan shifuku shibi ranka (天官賜福紫微鑾駕). This is an old Okinawan charm written on ridge beams to ward off misfortune and call in good luck.

Why It Was Registered: A Traditional Plan, Opened Up

The Tokuyama Family Residence Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape: a Taishō-era house whose red roof still shapes the view in inland Ōkawa.

Its plan follows the Yaeyama norm. Two front rooms, the ichibanza (best room) and nibanza (second room), each have a back room behind them, making a four-square grid similar to the mainland Yomadori. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out what the builder changed. There is no post between the two front rooms, and the wall at one corner of the veranda has been left out, so the house reads as unusually open.

Ishigaki City suggests a reason. With a post-office job came gatherings and celebrations, and the owner may have wanted the two front rooms to work as one large space. The city presents this as a likely explanation rather than a recorded fact.

What to Look For: Two Hipped Roofs and Island Timber

The roof of the Tokuyama Family Residence Main House is a Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof with its ridge running north to south, joined at a right angle by a second, lower hipped roof. Seen from above, the two form an L. The kitchen is attached at the rear left of the plan.

Island wood was used throughout. According to the city, every post is inumaki (Podocarpus), while the beams and other framing are fukugi and other timber grown on Ishigaki. The salt-cured wood that the owner stockpiled became these posts and beams.

The city places the missing veranda wall at the southeast corner. If you get a view of the house, look for the step between the two roofs and for that open corner under the eaves.

Viewing the Main House

The Tokuyama Family Residence Main House is a private home. The interior is closed and the grounds cannot be entered, so it can only be seen from the road.

The house sits in the centre of the plot, and its red roof shows over the stone wall at the gate. The open front rooms and the inscribed ridge beam are indoors and cannot be seen from outside. If you take photographs, do so from outside the property and avoid capturing the household.