Sakanoue Family Residence

What Is the Sakanoue Family Residence?

The Sakanoue Family Residence (阪之上家住宅, Sakanoue-ke Jūtaku) is a private house in Hamadera Showa-cho, Nishi Ward, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, whose five structures, among them a brick Western-style building of around 1921 and a Japanese-style detached room of 1934, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 18 November 1999. It occupies a corner lot in a quiet residential district near Hamadera-koen Station on the Nankai Main Line, with the brick building facing the street on the west.

Hamadera was laid out as a seaside villa suburb. From around 1918 the Hamadera Land Company sold plots along this stretch of the Osaka Bay coast, and the Sakanoue house was built on one of them. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a tradition that the Western-style building borrowed part of the plans for a Hamadera Hotel that the company proposed but never built. Sakai City repeats the story, dating the hotel scheme to around 1921. Both present it as hearsay, and none of the sources consulted reproduces the hotel drawings themselves.

A detached brick building on the street and a tatami reception wing with its own tea room behind it: the pairing is typical of how well-off families lived in the new railway suburbs of the interwar years.

Five Registered Structures

All five structures of the Sakanoue Family Residence entered the register together at the 21st round of registration on 18 November 1999, under the consecutive numbers 27-0080 to 27-0084. The Western-style building and the outer wall were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape; the detached room, the storehouse and the connecting corridor as models of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the dates and sizes below.

• Western-Style Building: around 1921, 2-storey brick building, 37 square meters
• Detached Room: 1934, single-storey timber building with a tiled roof, 107 square meters
• Connecting Corridor: 1934, timber, 6.5 square meters
• Storehouse: 1934, 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof, 20 square meters
• Outer Wall: around 1921, 19 meters long including the gateposts

The dates fall into two groups. The street-facing brick building and wall belong to the Taisho period; the three Japanese-style structures set further back were added together in the early Showa period.

How the Lot Is Laid Out

The Agency's description puts the Sakanoue lot at about 53 by 26 meters, long on the north-south axis, with streets along its south and west sides. The detached room stands near the middle and the main house toward the north. The main house has been rebuilt in recent years and is not part of the registration.

The Western-style building has its west face right on the street, and the detached room lies to its southeast. The storehouse is attached to the east side of the detached room, close to the boundary with the neighbouring plot. The corridor that once linked the old main house to the detached room survives and screens the courtyard from the brick building. Along the street, the outer wall runs from the northwest corner of the lot to the northwest corner of the Western-style building, with stone gateposts set back from the road.

Seen together, the brick building and wall form the public face of the Sakanoue Family Residence, while the detached room, storehouse and corridor make up a more private Japanese-style quarter behind them.

Visiting and Getting There

The Sakanoue Family Residence is still a family home and is not open to the public. Sakai City asks visitors to view it from outside only. Please stay on the public road, and if you take photographs, keep it brief and considerate of the residents and neighbours.

From the street you can see the Western-style building on the west side of the lot and, to its north, the outer wall and gateposts. The detached room, storehouse and corridor are inside the grounds and largely hidden from view.

The nearest station is Hamadera-koen on the Nankai Main Line; the house lies about 270 meters south of the station in a straight line. Hamadera-ekimae, the terminus of the Hankai Tramway, is roughly 300 meters away.