Sueyoshi Family Residence (Osaka)

The layout of the Sueyoshi Family Residence

The Sueyoshi Family Residence (末吉家住宅, Sueyoshi-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of the Sueyoshi, a merchant family of old Hirano-gō, in Hiranouemachi, Hirano Ward, Osaka City, where four structures built in the mid-Edo period (1661 to 1750) were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2004.

The estate meets the street along its north side. Set the Agency for Cultural Affairs' descriptions side by side and the order is clear: the front gate at the eastern end, then 4 m of tall wall, then the main house facing the street, then another 11.6 m of wall, with the west storehouse holding the northwest corner. Gate, wall, house and storehouse run on without a break and form the public face of the property.

The main house of the Sueyoshi Family Residence is not entered from the street. Its formal Shikidai entrance and a second, everyday entrance sit side by side on the east gable end. Reading the plan, a visitor would pass through the front gate, turn right toward that gable and reach the doors. The west storehouse opens to the east, on what the agency calls the garden side, which suggests a garden lies between the house and the storehouse, behind the tall wall.

Hirano-gō and the Sueyoshi Family Residence

Hirano-gō grew up as a moated town, ringed by water-filled ditches. According to Hirano Ward, no one knows when the moats were dug, but in the Sengoku period they served for defense, irrigation and drainage, and because they joined the Hirano River they opened the town to boat traffic, which underpinned its prosperity.

The Sueyoshi were counted among the seven leading families of Hirano, the Hirano Shichi Meika. Hirano Ward credits the family with building Sueyoshi Bridge over the Higashi-Yokobori River in central Osaka. Osaka Bunkazai Navi, run by the Osaka association of architects with partner groups, says the family took part in the red-seal ship trade, served as shogunal Daikan intendants and ran the Kashiwara-bune river boats. Osaka Prefecture's list of cultural properties also records the Sueyoshi Family Trade Documents, among them a map of Asian sea routes and a 1608 (Keichō 13) licence for a ship sailing abroad, held by a private owner in Hiranouemachi.

The family itself divided. A summary of an Osaka University doctoral thesis built on the Sueyoshi papers explains that the house split into eastern and western branches. The eastern Sueyoshi took on the headship of Hirano-gō and its office of chief elder and kept their descendants in Hirano, while the western Sueyoshi served as intendants and later moved to Edo as direct retainers of the shogun. Which line the Sueyoshi Family Residence belongs to is not stated in the agency's or the city's records.

Dating and the four registered structures of the Sueyoshi Family Residence

The agency dates all four structures to the mid-Edo period. For a closer date, Hirano Ward cites the local history Hirano-gō Chōshi, which puts the completion of the estate around 1707 (Hōei 4), and Osaka Bunkazai Navi passes on an account that the main house went up before Mount Fuji erupted. Fuji's great Hōei eruption broke out late in that same year, 1707.

All four were entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 8, 2004, under the consecutive numbers 27-0300 to 27-0303. Each was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. The agency points to the gate and wall, which together with the north face of the main house give the north edge of the property a continuous street front.

• Sueyoshi Family Residence Main House: wooden, 1 story, gabled roof in hongawara tiles, building area 320 square meters; formal and everyday entrances on the east gable end
• Sueyoshi Family Residence West Storehouse: earthen-walled storehouse, 2 stories, hongawara tiles, building area 77 square meters; set on a base of three courses of cut tuff
• Sueyoshi Family Residence Gate: wooden, 1 story, hongawara tiles, building area 13 square meters; a front gate with side walls and a wicket door on the east
• Sueyoshi Family Residence Wall: timber, sangawara pantiles, 16 m long; tall wall linking the gate to the house and the house to the storehouse

The City of Osaka and Osaka Prefecture list the Sueyoshi Family Residence the same way, as four items with a private owner.

Visiting the Sueyoshi Family Residence

The Sueyoshi Family Residence is a private home, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi lists it as not open to visitors. You cannot go through the gate or into any of the buildings, so please view the frontage from the street. All four registered structures stand along the north edge that faces the road, so the shape of the estate reads clearly from outside: gate, wall, main house, a second stretch of wall, and the storehouse at the corner.

The nearest station is Hirano on the JR Yamatoji Line (Kansai Main Line). Measured from the coordinates, the Sueyoshi Family Residence lies about 500 m in a straight line south of the station. The surroundings are residential, so if you stop for photos, keep clear of passers-by.