Shotokukan

A Residence of Six Buildings, All Raised in 1939

Shotokukan is a residence at 2-4-12 Hishiyanishi, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, where 6 buildings were entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 18 October 2000. They are registered properties rather than designated ones. All 6 were built in 1939.

The 6 are the main house, the storehouse, the household shrine, the gate, the east wall and the south wall. They belong to an educational corporation.

Of the main house, the Agency records that it was the private residence of the man who founded that school, a timber merchant of Osaka.

No Span at All in the Years of Building

All 6 carry the same date.

The date field for the main house, the storehouse, the household shrine, the gate and both walls reads early Showa, 1939.

The registration date is 18 October 2000 for all 6 as well. Neither the building nor the listing is spread over time.

At Kannonshoji, 7 buildings ranged across 132 years, from 1796 to 1928, the precinct having been built up generation by generation.

At Ikinariya 10 buildings are registered and at the Shigeta residence 8, but those went on the register in different years.

Here one owner built everything at once, and gate and walls alike share the year.

A Timber Merchant Who Chose His Own Wood

The material of the house is bound up with the trade of the man who built it.

Of the main house, the Agency writes that fine timber he had himself cut from the log was used freely throughout, and calls it a modern residence in Japanese style with interiors blending Japanese and Western design.

Deciding how boards are taken from a log is the work of cutting. A timber merchant is recorded as having done it for his own house.

At the Ikinariya storehouse, the reason given was that a view from the road is well loved. At the former Shuseikan machinery factory, that the building followed a war.

Here the record says who chose the material and how.

The main house covers 1,169 square metres, with a porte-cochere under a hip-and-gable roof at the centre, a single-storeyed reception wing to the left and a two-storeyed living wing to the right, set in balance.

Three Ways of Stating Size

How large a structure is depends on what kind it is.

The main house, the storehouse and the household shrine are given floor areas: 1,169 square metres, 133 square metres and 3.3 square metres.

The gate is given a frontage of 3.2 metres, the width one passes through.

The east wall is given a length of 24 metres and the south wall 70 metres. A wall is measured by how far it runs.

Area, frontage and length stand together. At Kannonshoji, area, floor area and frontage divided the same way.

The largest is the main house at 1,169 square metres and the smallest the household shrine at 3.3, a difference of roughly 354 times.

How the Buildings Stand

Where each structure stands is recorded.

The gate stands towards the south of the eastern edge of the grounds, along the river, set back a little from the road.

The east wall runs north from the gate along the river for about 24 metres. The south wall turns at the south-east corner and runs west along the southern edge for about 70 metres.

The storehouse stands at the north-west corner of the grounds. The household shrine lies beyond it, on the south side of the storehouse.

Through the gate, the main house stands at the centre, walls enclose the east and south, and storehouse and shrine sit in the north-west corner.

Before the south wall stands a wooden lattice fence, which the record says makes an agreeable lane alongside.

Visiting

The residence is at 2-4-12 Hishiyanishi, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, owned by an educational corporation.

Whether and on what terms it opens follows the owner's own arrangements.

The gate and both walls face the road and can be seen from outside.

Conditions differ from one structure to another, and are noted on each building's page.

Arrangements can change, so check before travelling.