Former Inoue Family Residence Main House

What Is the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House?

The Former Inoue Family Residence Main House (旧井上家住宅主屋, Kyū-Inoue-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is the 1784 home of a village headman's family in Kusaka, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024.

It stands at the center of the estate, facing south. The house measures 12 by 5.5 ken, the traditional bay unit of about 1.8 meters, and covers 273 square meters, far more than any of the other eleven registered structures on the site. The roof is of the Yamatomune type: its thatch is now temporarily sheathed in copper. Tiled lean-tos wrap around all four sides, and a small well house projects from the southeast corner.

Why the Main House Was Registered

The Former Inoue Family Residence Main House is registration number 27-0917, entered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it simply as a farmhouse with an exceptionally long yamatomune roof.

It was built in 1784 and altered in the mid-Meiji period and again in 1978. Osaka Bunkazai Navi notes that 1978 was when the thatch was covered with copper. The same source values the house as a survivor from 1784 despite the Meiji changes, and calls it a mature example of the large six-room farmhouse plan.

The yamatomune form is common among farmhouses from the Nara basin into Kawachi. Kusaka lies at the foot of Mount Ikoma, directly across the ridge from Nara, and the roof reflects that neighborhood.

Inside the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House

The plan of the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House divides into a large earthen-floored Doma on the east and living rooms on the west. The southwest corner holds a formal Zashiki reception room with a Tokonoma alcove, looking onto the garden.

Photographs and notes from Osaka Bunkazai Navi show the doma split by a slatted screen along the line of the main pillar into an inner yard and a kitchen, although the space was probably undivided when first built. The kitchen has a row of five hearths, sized for pots holding from one to ten shō of rice, which were used for different amounts of cooking.

Up in the low attic storey is a hidden storeroom of about five tatami mats, handed down as a "warrior's hiding room." East of the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House is a well fed by groundwater from Mount Ikoma, and a wall set inside the northeast corner blocks the direction traditionally regarded as unlucky. Much of the household's everyday equipment survives along with the building.

Visiting the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House

The Former Inoue Family Residence Main House is not open to the public, and the interior cannot be visited. Because the house stands in the middle of the estate, it is also hard to see as a whole from the public road. The hearths and the hidden storeroom can be seen in the photographs published by Osaka Bunkazai Navi.

Directions to the estate and what can be seen from outside are covered on the Former Inoue Family Residence page. Any future opening of the Former Inoue Family Residence Main House would likely be announced by Higashiosaka City or the owner, so check before you go.