Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa) Main House

A Merchant's Villa with a Western Room on Top

The Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa) Main House (市川家住宅（旧亀岡家別荘）主屋, Ichikawa-ke Jūtaku) is a villa built between 1919 and 1926, in the late Taishō era, in Tezukayama-nishi, Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, and was entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024. It carries registration number 27-0907 and was listed on the same day as four other structures on the lot: the storehouse, the front gate and wall, and two middle gates.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the main house of a villa built for a businessman from Senba, the old merchant quarter at the heart of Osaka.

It is a two-storey timber house with a building area of 207 square metres. The roof is laid mostly in Sangawara-buki pantiles, with some sections in copper, and a connecting corridor is attached. The house was renovated in 1989.

Why the Ichikawa Family Residence Main House Is Listed

The building was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

Most of the house is Japanese in spirit. The zashiki reception rooms that face the south and west gardens were built with carefully chosen timber and a well-considered tokonoma alcove. Then, at the south-west corner of the upper floor, the style changes completely: a Western room with a mantelpiece. Outside, that corner shows white-painted walls, sash windows and a veranda trimmed with a shallow arched frieze, so a small Western villa seems to perch on top of a Japanese one.

Houses of this period often added a single Western-style parlour beside the entrance. The City of Osaka's heritage advisers point out that stacking a Western floor over a Japanese floor, as the Ichikawa Family Residence does, is much rarer. The Western section is clad in horizontal boards, and its veranda has a stone floor and a Kōran balustrade. Inside, the rectangular sash windows, papered walls and plastered ceiling are said to survive much as they were built.

The city also lists the house as one of Sumiyoshi Ward's urban landscape resources, where local descriptions call the upper storey a Spanish-style villa sitting on a Japanese house.

What to Look For

The corner that rewards attention is the south-west angle of the upper floor on the Ichikawa Family Residence Main House. White walls, tall sash windows and the arched frieze of the veranda set it apart from the tiled roofs and garden-facing rooms below.

In fiscal 2018 the owners carried out repairs with support from Osaka's streetscape improvement programme. Weathered exterior walls were repainted in a colour close to the original, and the rotted wooden handrails of the veranda were remade by hand to match the old design. The railings seen today are those faithful replacements.

Downstairs, the zashiki rooms open to the gardens in the Japanese way, with the owner's taste showing in the alcove timbers. Upstairs, a room built around a fireplace. That contrast under a single roof is the house's defining quality.

Visiting the Ichikawa Family Residence

The Ichikawa Family Residence (Former Kameoka Family Villa) Main House is a private home and is not open to visitors. There are no opening hours or admission fees, and the interior cannot be seen. The house stands behind the front gate and wall, with its Western room facing the gardens, so only limited parts can be glimpsed from the street.

No published rules on photography could be found. This is a quiet residential neighbourhood, so keep any photographs to the exterior as seen from the public road and be considerate of the residents.

For a clear view of the Western section, the City of Osaka's streetscape case study page shows the veranda before and after its repair. It is the best way to see a house that cannot be visited.