Tanaka Family Residence Main House

The Tanaka Family Residence Main House

The Tanaka Family Residence Main House (田中家住宅主屋, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a large farmhouse from the mid Edo period (1661 to 1750) at the center of the Tanaka estate on the old Kishu Kaido in Sukematsucho, Izumiotsu City, Osaka Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2007. It is the oldest and largest of the six registered buildings of the family once known as the Sukematsu Honjin.

The house runs north to south under a hip-and-gable roof of hongawara tiles, with a low attic storey called tsushi. It measures 11 and a half by 7 bays, a building area of 341 square metres. The southern part is an earth-floored work area; the raised living rooms lie to the north, with the formal room in the northwest corner, and a gabled kitchen annex juts out west of the earthen floor.

An Edo Farmhouse That Kept Its Shape

The Tanaka Family Residence Main House was registered as a building that would not be easy to reproduce. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that despite alterations it keeps the form of the mid Edo period. Additions followed in the late and final Edo years, including the entrance and reception wing attached to the north side in 1855.

Sources differ slightly on the date. The national database gives the mid Edo period (1661 to 1750); the Osaka Bunkazai Navi listing says the late 17th century; Izumiotsu City says the estate as a whole preserves the scale and form of the early Edo period. All point to the late 1600s or early 1700s, and this article follows the national database.

The Earthen Floor

The earthen-floored doma is the heart of the Tanaka Family Residence Main House. The Osaka Bunkazai Navi listing describes it as one of the largest in Osaka Prefecture, and its photographs show heavy beams spanning the space and a reception room one step up from the floor. A house that received travelling lords and also ran a headman's business and a farm would have needed that room to move.

From outside, the length of the building is the thing to notice. Eleven and a half bays of roof laid parallel to the highway told every passer-by what kind of family lived here.

Access

The Tanaka Family Residence Main House is still the family's home and is not open to the public. It stands in the middle of the grounds, so the building as a whole cannot be seen from the road.