Uezu Family Residence (Gushikawa Village, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture)

What the Uezu Family Residence is

The Uezu Family Residence (上江洲家住宅, Uezu-ke Jūtaku) in Nishime, Kumejima Town, Okinawa Prefecture, is the compound of a Ryukyuan gentry family built around 1754, and its Main House and two-storey Mae-no-ya were designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on May 15, 1972.

The official name, Uezu Family Residence (Gushikawa Village, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture), preserves the village that existed when the house was designated; Gushikawa later merged with neighboring Nakazato to form today's Kumejima Town. Family tradition holds that the Uezu descend from the lords of Gushikawa Castle on Kume Island. Under the Ryukyu Kingdom they held the rank of pechin, a gentry title, and for generations served as jitodai, the chief local official of a magiri, or district. The Agency for Cultural Affairs likewise describes the place as the home of a family that held this regional office.

The Agency's database dates the Main House to about 1754 and the Mae-no-ya to 1754, the middle of Japan's Edo period. The compound is enclosed by a stone wall; the Main House stands near the center and the Mae-no-ya in the southern part of the west side. Outside the wall, to the east and west, grow groves of fukugi trees.

Why the Uezu Family Residence is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out how completely the layout of the Uezu Family Residence survives, and calls its stone enclosure especially fine. What counts here is the ensemble: wall, screen wall, Main House, Mae-no-ya and windbreak trees still work together as one homestead. Alongside the 2 buildings, the designation covers attached items: the stone enclosure walls (2), a hinpun screen wall (1) and two painted wooden plan boards (2).

The Main House is really two linked blocks. The front block, the ufuya, measures 12.6 by 12.4 meters, with a hipped roof (Yosemune-zukuri) of traditional round-and-flat tiles (Hongawarabuki) and eaves carried on all four sides. Joined to it on the west is the tonguwa, 8.7 by 8.0 meters, also hipped and tiled. In Okinawan houses the ufuya holds the formal rooms and the tonguwa serves as the kitchen wing, and the Uezu Main House keeps that arrangement intact.

The Mae-no-ya is a two-storey building of 6.3 by 4.8 meters, hipped and tiled, dating from the same mid-18th-century period. It occupies the front corner of the compound.

The houses and walls have been through conservation work, documented in a 1995 report on the repair of the Main House, Mae-no-ya and stone enclosure of the Uezu Family Residence.

What to look for at the Uezu Family Residence

The first thing you notice is the wall. According to the Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Uezu Family Residence is ringed by Ryukyu limestone and fukugi trees: pale coral-derived stone on the inside, dense dark-green foliage outside, a double barrier against the typhoon winds that sweep the island.

Inside the gate stands the hinpun, a freestanding screen wall placed between entrance and house. It blocks the view from the street and, by tradition, keeps evil from walking straight in. Only after stepping around it does the ufuya appear under its broad red-tiled roof.

Because eaves run around all four sides, the ufuya's roof sits low and deep, shading the house from sun and rain. The smaller roof of the tonguwa follows to the west. Turn toward the southwest and the Mae-no-ya rises a full storey higher than its neighbors, the one two-storey structure among the single-storey roofs of the Uezu Family Residence.

Visiting the Uezu Family Residence

The Uezu Family Residence is not normally open. According to the Kumejima Tourism Association, special visits can be arranged by advance reservation, between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., closed Mondays, for a fee of 300 yen. Reservations and inquiries go to the association (098-851-7973). Ask at the same time whether individual travelers are being accepted.

The house is privately owned. Confirm which areas you may see and whether photography is allowed when you book. A 2025 update in a travel magazine reported that only groups were being accepted, and that the compound could still be seen from outside the stone wall.

Kume Island is reached by plane or ferry from Naha. The Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau gives about 20 minutes by car from Kumejima Airport and about 10 minutes from Kanegusuku Port to the Uezu Family Residence. A rental car or taxi is the practical way to get around the island.