Yagi Family Residence Asagi

What Is the Yagi Family Residence Asagi?

The Yagi Family Residence Asagi (屋宜家住宅アサギ, Yagi-ke Jūtaku Asagi) in Ōton, Yaese Town, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, is a detached annex roofed in cement tiles, built around 1955 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2009.

An asagi is a separate building that stands apart from the main house in an Okinawan homestead; the Yagi family calls theirs the ashagi, or detached annex. The national record lists a one-story timber building of 25 square meters, counted as one building. It is one of five registered elements of the Yagi homestead, with the main house, well, hinpun and stone wall, and it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

How the Asagi Is Built

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yagi Family Residence Asagi stands southeast of the main house with its ridge running north to south. It measures 6.6 meters by 3.8 meters under a Yosemune-zukuri of cement tiles. On the west and south the roof is carried down low, and Amahaji eaves wrap around from the west side to the south.

Inside, a room for the family altar lies to the south and a six-mat room to the north. The timber is Japanese cedar and chaagi, the Okinawan name for yew plum pine, and plank walls close the back and the four corners. The Agency describes it as a plain, unadorned building.

Yaese Town likewise counts the cement-tiled asagi, set diagonally across from the main house, among the buildings that make the homestead a good example of a traditional Okinawan layout.

A Roof of Cement Tiles

The family says the Yagi Family Residence Asagi went up about five years after the main house. It was roofed in cement tiles rather than Okinawa's red clay tiles because cement tiles were cheaper at the time. They are no longer made, and buildings roofed with them are now far fewer than red-tiled houses. The family describes the asagi as the first cement-tiled building to be registered as a cultural property.

Its original use was different too. According to the family, the asagi was first a storehouse, with large bins for rice and soybeans. Foot-powered threshers, a rope-making machine, tools for cutting sugarcane and parts of a cultivator were kept here. The household grew rice in those days, and after threshing it fed the straw into the machine to make rope for bundling sugarcane. Some of these tools have since been donated to the town museum in Yaese.

What to Look for at the Asagi

Begin by comparing the roof with the main house. The main house wears red clay tiles with white plaster joints, while the Yagi Family Residence Asagi is covered in cement tiles of a different color and texture. Within one homestead, you can see the roofing material change over just a few postwar years.

Next, look at the eaves on the west and south. On these two sides the roof is brought down low to cover the amahaji, so from outside the roof visibly reaches further down than on the other faces. Even on a small building of 25 square meters, the eaves create a band of shade between indoors and out.

Finally, look at the walls and timbers. The plank walls at the back and corners and the cedar and chaagi posts and beams carry no carving or ornament. That plainness is exactly what the Agency singles out in the Yagi Family Residence Asagi.

Visiting the Asagi

The Yagi Family Residence Asagi serves as the Yagiya restaurant's annex dining room and is used mainly for reservations. The restaurant says it seats up to 20 adults at tables for four to six. On days without bookings it is opened to other guests as needed. The six-mat room on the north side is normally closed off with sliding panels, which are removed for large groups.

The restaurant takes reservations for parties of four or more adults, so if you would like to sit in the asagi, contact the restaurant in advance. There is no official guidance on photography; take care not to include other guests in your pictures.