Takemoto Family Residence East Main House

About the Takemoto Family Residence East Main House

The Takemoto Family Residence East Main House (竹本家住宅東主屋, Takemoto-ke Jūtaku Higashi-shuoku) is a small late-Edo-period townhouse (Machiya), built between 1830 and 1867, in Kitamachi, Kaizuka City, Osaka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2003. It is the smaller, eastern of the two buildings that make up the Takemoto Family Residence (Kitamachi).

The East Main House is a single-story timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 49 square meters. It faces south onto Horinocho-suji and is used together with the West Main House, built around 1932, which adjoins it on the west.

Why the East Main House Was Registered

The Takemoto Family Residence East Main House was registered on March 18, 2003, as No. 27-0226, under the criterion "contributing to the historic landscape of the country."

The Agency for Cultural Affairs is candid that the building has been altered a good deal over the years. Even so, it judged that the East Main House still conveys what a small Edo-period townhouse was like. Its value lies less in fine detailing than in its modest scale and its low profile.

The building runs two and a half bays (ken), roughly 4.5 meters, along its long side. At 49 square meters it covers less than a third of the ground area of the West Main House next door (161 square meters). This is the size of an ordinary townhouse on the streets of the old temple town, preserved as it was.

What to Look For: High Ground, Low Roof

In front of the Takemoto Family Residence East Main House, compare the ground with the roofline. The East Main House stands on ground about 60 centimeters higher than the West Main House. Its body is so low, though, that its roof still settles below the roof of its neighbor.

Higher ground, lower roof: the mismatch comes from the gap in building dates. Late-Edo townhouses often kept the eaves along the street low, while the West Main House of around 1932 rises to a full second story. At the seam between the two houses, close to a century of change in how townhouses were built shows up as a step in the roofline.

The alterations are part of the East Main House story too. The agency's description mentions a Western-style room created at the center of the upper level. Officially the building is single-story, so this appears to be the low space under the roof later fitted out as a room.

The East and West Main Houses began as two separate dwellings. Rather than tearing down the small Edo house, the family joined it to the newer house next door and kept using it, and that is a large part of why it survives.

Visiting the East Main House

The Takemoto Family Residence East Main House is a private home, and no information about opening the interior is available (checked October 1, 2026); the upper-floor Western-style room cannot be seen from outside. You can view the south side from Horinocho-suji. Standing at the line where it meets the West Main House, you take in the step in the ground and the difference in roof height at a single glance.

Photograph only the exterior from the street, and be considerate of the residents. Directions to the property are on the Takemoto Family Residence (Kitamachi) page.