Former Ueda Family Residence (Yao)

The Former Ueda Family Residence (Yao)

The Former Ueda Family Residence (旧植田家住宅, Kyū-Uedake Jūtaku) in Uematsu-cho, Yao City, Osaka Prefecture, occupies the site of the kaisho, the estate office, of the Yasunaka Shinden reclaimed fields, and five of its buildings, led by a main house and a storehouse of the late Edo period, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Yao City now runs it as a museum called the Yasunaka Shinden Kaisho Site, Former Ueda Family Residence.

The house stands on the left bank of the Nagase River, once the main channel of the Yamato River (official site). When the Yamato River was rerouted in 1704, new farmland was opened in its old beds, and Yasunaka Shinden was one of those tracts. Its kaisho is said to have handled dealings between the fields and the intendant and served as a meeting place for local people (Kansai University). In June of the same year as the national registration, Yao City designated the buildings a municipal cultural property and the site a municipal historic site (official site).

Yasunaka Shinden and the Ueda Family

Research by the Yao City Board of Education found that Yasunaka Shinden was not the work of a single developer: about half belonged to Anpukuji, a temple in Kashiwara, and the rest was opened by several other parties (Kansai University). The Ueda family of the Former Ueda Family Residence arrived in 1762, when the first head, Ueda Rinzo, came to manage the temple's holdings, and the family is said to have served as estate managers for generations after.

Proof that the site is older than the family came from a map found among the family papers. The Yasunaka Shinden Bunken Ezu of 1711, 150 cm high and 646 cm long, marks the present site as the kaisho yashiki, the estate office compound (museum leaflet). The find showed that what had been taken for a village headman's house of the Edo period was in fact a reclamation kaisho, and it led to the city designation (Kansai University).

In June 2005 the Ueda family gave the land, the buildings and the collections to Yao City (Kansai University). The collections, including old documents, books, paintings and crafts, run to about 40,000 items (museum leaflet). After restoration, the Former Ueda Family Residence opened to the public in May 2009 (official site).

The Five Buildings and Their Layout

The five registered buildings of the Former Ueda Family Residence are the main house, the front gate, storehouses No. 1 and No. 2, and the lodge, or guardroom (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Along the road on the northwest side, the lodge, the gate, storehouse No. 1 and storehouse No. 2 stand in a line from northeast to southwest and form the street front. The main house stands behind them, facing northwest, and is linked to storehouse No. 2 by a corridor.

Their dates differ. The main house and storehouse No. 1 are of the late Edo period, the gate and the lodge of the mid-Meiji era, and storehouse No. 2 of the late Taisho era; storehouse No. 1 was moved to its present spot in the mid-Meiji era (Agency for Cultural Affairs). In the museum, household tools of the Ueda family are on permanent display in the main house and storehouse No. 1, storehouse No. 2 serves as a lecture room, and documents and paintings appear in changing exhibitions in the adjoining gallery (official site; Yao City).

Visiting

The Former Ueda Family Residence is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. It is closed on Tuesdays, on the day after a public holiday and over the New Year, December 28 to January 4 (Yao City). Admission is 250 yen for adults and 120 yen for high school and university students; junior high school students and younger enter free, and groups of 20 or more pay 120 yen and 60 yen (official site).

It is a short walk from Yao Station on the JR Yamatoji Line: the museum leaflet gives about 3 minutes east from the south exit, and Yao City about 5 minutes southeast. There is no parking, so come by public transport. The entrance is the front gate (museum leaflet). Official information does not say whether photography is allowed, so ask at reception.