Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa)

A Senba Merchant's Villa in Tezukayama

The Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa) (市川家住宅（旧亀岡家別荘）, Ichikawa-ke Jūtaku) is a late-Taishō-era villa estate, built between 1919 and 1926, in Tezukayama-nishi, Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, whose main house, storehouse, front gate and wall, north middle gate with waiting arbor, and south middle gate were all entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, it was built as a villa for a businessman from Senba, the merchant district at the heart of Osaka. The Kameoka family commissioned it, and the Ichikawa family later made it their home, so the official name joins both surnames. Locally it is also known as Tezukayama Studio, after the flamenco school that occupies the storehouse.

Tezukayama was one of the first districts laid out as a comfortable residential suburb when Osaka began to spread southward in the early twentieth century. The City of Osaka regards the Ichikawa Family Residence, with its house, storehouse and green garden, as a textbook example of the estates that define the neighbourhood.

How the Ichikawa Family Residence Is Laid Out

The lot faces a road on its west side. That road ends in front of the property, and the white storehouse stands squarely at the dead end. Just south of the storehouse, the front gate and wall give the estate its face to the street.

Through the front gate, a short garden path leads to the entrance of the main house. On the north side of the path, the North Middle Gate and its small waiting arbor mark the edge of the inner courtyard garden. Opposite, on the south side, the South Middle Gate opens into the south garden. Both middle gates are light structures that make a feature of logs and bark-edged timber.

The main house sits at the centre, its reception rooms facing the south and west gardens. Only the south-west corner of the upper floor is a Western room, with a veranda projecting toward the garden. The storehouse stands west of the main house and connects to it by a veranda from its east side.

The Five Registered Structures

All five structures of the Ichikawa Family Residence were registered on the same day, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape, with consecutive registration numbers 27-0907 to 27-0911.

The Main House (27-0907) is a two-storey timber house with a building area of 207 square metres and a Western room with a mantelpiece on its upper floor. The Storehouse (27-0908), a two-storey plastered kura of 55 square metres, closes the end of the lane. The Front Gate and Wall (27-0909) pair a bracket-arm gate crowned by a tall wall with 15 metres of boundary wall. The North Middle Gate and Waiting Arbor (27-0910) and the South Middle Gate (27-0911) stand on either side of the garden path.

Each building has its own page with details of its construction and what to look for.

The Ichikawa Family Residence Today

The Ichikawa Family Residence is still a private home. The storehouse has been converted inside into a flamenco studio while keeping its exterior, and according to a Sumiyoshi Ward interview it opened as a gallery and studio in 1988.

In fiscal 2018, with support from Osaka's streetscape improvement programme, the walls and veranda railings of the Western section of the main house were repaired, and the annex in front of the storehouse and the paving along the road were refinished. The city also lists the residence as one of its urban landscape resources.

Visiting the Ichikawa Family Residence

The Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa) is a private home. There is no public opening, no opening hours and no admission fee, and the grounds cannot be entered.

From the street you can see the Front Gate and Wall and the Storehouse. The Main House and the two middle gates stand behind the front gate, so little of them is visible from outside. The storehouse interior can be experienced through Tezukayama Studio's trial lessons or events held in the storehouse; check the studio's current information for conditions.

No published photography rules could be found. This is a quiet residential street, so keep to exterior shots from the public road and do not block the gate or the storehouse entrance.

The nearest station is Kohama on the Nankai Main Line. Following the studio's directions, turn right out of the station, turn left at the corner by a medical clinic (成山医院), cross the traffic lights and continue straight until the road ends. The walk takes about 6 minutes, and the storehouse comes into view directly ahead.