Naruko Family Residence Annex

A Wing Built for Guests

The Naruko Family Residence Annex (成子家住宅離れ, Naruko-ke Jūtaku Hanare) in Ozaki, Hannan City, Osaka Prefecture, is a single-storey reception wing of the Taisho era (1912–1926) at the home of the Naniwa Shuzo sake brewers, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 October 2001. It is timber-built under a Sangawara-buki pantile roof, with a building area of 167 square metres.

It leaves the southeast corner of the main house at a right angle and faces the forecourt behind the front gate. The main house was for business and family; the annex was for visitors, and the gate exists largely to bring them to it.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists an entrance hall, a formal reception room, a detached reception room, an anteroom and a Western-style wing. Under one low roof, the family could receive a guest in either Japanese or Western fashion.

Fine Timber and a Proper Western Parlour

The agency singles out the Naruko Family Residence Annex as a well-equipped space for receiving guests, and points to two rooms.

The first is the formal Zashiki reception room, complete with its decorative alcove and shelving, and built throughout with good-quality timber. For a sake brewer, the room where customers and local worthies were entertained said a great deal about the standing of the house.

The second is the Western-style parlour. It has tall windows, a Shikkui plaster ceiling edged with moulded cornices, and a central ceiling rose from which a light would hang. The agency calls it the genuine article: not a token parlour tacked onto a Japanese house but a room that follows Western interior design properly.

Like the other nine structures on the estate, the annex was registered on the same day for its contribution to the historic landscape. Set back from the street, it still shapes the compound's public face through the gate and forecourt.

What to Look For

The Western-style room shown on the brewery tour is here. Look up first: the stepped cornice where wall meets ceiling and the raised plaster rose at the centre are what make the room unmistakably Western.

Then look at the windows. Japanese rooms keep openings low, at the eye level of someone seated on the floor. Tall windows mean a room meant for chairs, and under one roof you can see two households living at two different heights.

In the zashiki, look closely around the alcove. The agency says only that good timber is used throughout, without naming the members, so judge for yourself: the grain and colour of the alcove post, the alcove frame and the ceiling boards reward a slow look in soft light.

Seeing the Annex

The Naruko Family Residence Annex sits back from the street and is barely visible from outside; through the gate you see only the forecourt side.

The interior is shown on Naniwa Shuzo's paid, reservation-only brewery tour, which includes the formal rooms, the Western-style room and a tea room of the residence. It is still part of a family home, so ask your guide what you may photograph. Directions and booking details are on the Naruko Family Residence page.