Fujimoto Family Residence Annex

The Fujimoto Family Residence Annex

The Fujimoto Family Residence Annex (藤本家住宅離れ, Fujimoto-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is a single-storey early Meiji-period guest wing in Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 18, 2006. It stands north of the main house across the entrance forecourt, its ridge running east to west.

It measures 4 and a half by 2 and a half Ken bays, with a building area of 42 square metres, under a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) pantile roof (Sangawara-buki). The entrance is at the southeast corner. A two-mat earthen vestibule and a two-mat step-up lead west into a six-mat anteroom and then a six-mat reception room, which ends in a Tokonoma alcove and shelves. A veranda (Engawa) runs along the north side.

Why It Was Registered, and What It Was For

The Fujimoto Family Residence Annex was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it the principal element of the northern part of the estate, where it shares space with the main house, the tool storehouse and the front gate.

Sources differ on what to call it. Osaka Bunkazai Navi describes the annex as a tea room (Chashitsu) with its own forecourt to the north. The Agency never uses that term, describing instead a pair of six-mat rooms with an alcove and shelves. Both accounts fit a building meant for receiving guests rather than for daily life.

What to Look For

The plan is a straight line. From the entrance you move west through the vestibule, the step-up and the anteroom before reaching the reception room, where the alcove closes the sequence. Each step takes the guest a notch further into formality.

The veranda faces north onto the annex's own garden. With the main house entered from the north and the annex looking further north again, the northern half of the Fujimoto Family Residence becomes a layered arrangement of two gardens and two buildings facing each other.

At 42 square metres against the main house's 193 square metres, the Fujimoto Family Residence Annex shows how the household set aside a compact, separate space for visitors instead of receiving them in the working home.

Visiting the Fujimoto Family Residence Annex

The annex is part of a private home and is not open to the public. It stands inside the northern part of the estate, behind the front gate and the tool storehouse as seen from the lane, so little of it is visible from the street.

If you walk past the estate, keep to the public road and keep your stop short. Directions to the estate are on the Fujimoto Family Residence page.