Kawamoto Family Residence (Ibaraki)

Kawamoto Family Residence

The Kawamoto Family Residence (川本家住宅) in Kamiizumicho, Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, is a merchant house whose shop and main house of 1928, annex of 1941 and early Showa-era warehouse were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 25, 2014 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The three buildings carry the consecutive registration numbers 27-0580 to 27-0582 and are privately owned (Ibaraki City). This Ibaraki is a city in Osaka Prefecture, not to be confused with Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to Ibaraki City, the family business began in the mid-Edo period as Fukushimaya, an indigo dyer. It later dealt in rice and, from 1872, ran a wholesale trade in household goods. The Kawamoto Family Residence was the second property in the city to be registered.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered all three buildings for their contribution to the historic landscape, as reminders of Ibaraki's long history as a centre of trade and small industry.

How the Three Buildings Fit Together

The shop and main house is a Machiya townhouse six bays wide, facing east onto the street, with a black-plastered upper front and a projecting side wall at each end (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A covered corridor leads from its rear to the annex, and the warehouse stands at the back of the plot to the west, its ridge running north to south.

What ties the Kawamoto Family Residence together is a trolley rail that runs from the earthen passage of the shop and main house all the way to the warehouse (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Goods taken in at the shop front could be wheeled straight back to storage, and the layout of the plot still follows that working route. Ibaraki City, which also praises the lavish fittings of the detached reception building, regards the residence as a fine piece of modern Japanese-style architecture that develops the Kamigata merchant-house type. Each building is described on its own page.

The House Today

Ibaraki City's newsletter of 2015 notes that the Kawamoto Family Residence has served as both shop and family home since the business was founded; at that time the tenth head of the family was running it as an antiques shop, café and gallery. The city's 2022 newsletter adds that it is sometimes used as an event space, and Fukushimaya (Kawamoto Honten), the business in the building, offers the old house for hire as a venue.

Visiting

The Kawamoto Family Residence is a private home and is not open on a regular basis. The street front of the shop and main house can be seen from the road, but the annex and warehouse stand at the back of the plot and are not visible. The interior is accessible only on occasions such as events, so check Fukushimaya's notices before you go.

The street address is 6-29 Kamiizumicho, Ibaraki; the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the lot number 1167 Kamiizumicho. According to Fukushimaya, the house is about 10 to 15 minutes on foot from either Hankyu Ibaraki-shi Station or JR Ibaraki Station, near the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Museum.