Terada Family Residence (Kaizuka)

What the Terada Family Residence in Kaizuka is

The Terada Family Residence (寺田家住宅) is a walled estate in Shinmachi, Kaizuka City, Osaka Prefecture, built mainly in 1936, whose seven structures were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 25 July 2011.

The west side of the estate faces Osaka Prefectural Route 204, the old Kishu Kaido highway. Walking along it, you meet first a granite wall running 56 metres, then a gate with a steep, thatch-like roof at its southern end. Behind the wall stand the main house, two storehouses, a barn and a postwar concrete wing, but from the street only roofs and treetops show. That concealment is itself characteristic of the estates that industrialists built along old highways in the early Showa era.

The family was known by the shop name Teranan. Their buildings mix Japanese and Western design within a single roof: the porch and reception room of the main house are Spanish in manner, while the tatami rooms take the lighter Sukiya-zukuri approach. All seven structures were registered together, which suggests that what was valued was not only the quality of each building but the survival of a complete estate layout, from wall and gate through to storehouses and service buildings.

From a branch household to a finished estate

The Teradas were part of the Terada financial group centred on nearby Kishiwada. Kusuji Terada established this branch household in the first years of the Taisho era, and the house came to be called Teranan after a character in his given name. On setting up on his own he ran an ironworks at Umizuka in the former village of Asogo, close to where the estate now stands.

He acquired the present site around 1934. All the buildings except the New House were put up in 1936, roughly two decades after the branch was founded.

Two of the seven fall outside that date. The Outer Storehouse was moved here from elsewhere, and carving on the bracket supporting its entrance canopy points to an original date somewhere between the end of the Edo period and the Meiji era. The New House dates from 1958 and is the oldest reinforced concrete building in Kaizuka City. One estate therefore holds work spanning roughly a century of construction.

How the Terada Family Residence is laid out

The site runs east from the highway frontage. Taking the buildings in that order makes their relationships clear.

• Along the western street line, the stone wall, with a semicircular arched service door towards its north end and the Main Gate on a flight of steps at its south end
• Towards the north of the plot, the Main House, 213 square metres in area, its roofs combining Yosemune-zukuri and Irimoya-zukuri forms
• The Inner Storehouse, joined to the east face of the Main House by a covered passage, with the Outer Storehouse standing further east and facing back towards the house
• The Barn, north of the kitchen entrance at the rear, built into a slope so that its upper floor meets the Main House at ground level while the lower floor sits below grade
• The New House, across a courtyard from the Main House, with guest rooms in its eastern half and living rooms and a terrace in its western half

Two storehouses meant two jobs. A storehouse attached to the dwelling held what the household reached for often, while a detached one held everything else. At the Terada Family Residence the Inner Storehouse is linked to the house by a passage, and the Outer Storehouse stands clear of it across open ground.

The seven registered structures

The seven structures of the Terada Family Residence were listed in the 70th round of registration, numbered consecutively from 27-0542 to 27-0548.

• Main House (27-0542), 1936. Timber, two storeys with a single-storey section, tiled roof, 213 square metres
• New House (27-0543), 1958. Reinforced concrete, single storey with a two-storey section, tiled roof, 139 square metres
• Inner Storehouse (27-0544), 1936. Two-storey Dozo-zukuri, tiled roof, 19 square metres
• Outer Storehouse (27-0545), 1936. Two-storey Dozo-zukuri, tiled roof, 24 square metres
• Barn (27-0546), 1936. Timber, single storey over a basement, tiled roof, 20 square metres
• Main Gate (27-0547), 1936. Timber, tiled roof, 3.7 metres wide
• Stone Wall (27-0548), 1936. Masonry, 56 metres in total length

Japan's registration system applies published criteria, and two of them are cited here. The Main House, New House and Main Gate were registered as models of design; the two storehouses, the Barn and the Stone Wall as contributions to the historic landscape. The first looks at how a building is made, the second at what it does for the street and the estate around it.

Visiting the Terada Family Residence

The Terada Family Residence is a private home. The interiors are not open, and a visit means looking at the exterior from the public street.

The west frontage is where that works. The Stone Wall and the Main Gate face Prefectural Route 204 and can be seen head on from the pavement. Following the wall around its right-angled turns lets you read the rough-faced granite coursing and the detailing of the gate eaves. There is no way into the grounds, so please do not peer through the gate or step inside.

The nearest station is Kaizuka, served by the Nankai Main Line and the Mizuma Railway, about a five-minute walk to the west. The simplest route is to come out of the station, reach the old highway and follow it south. The surrounding district is the former temple town of Kaizuka Jinaicho, and the city publishes a walking course through it that passes nearby. No visitor parking is provided, so public transport is the reliable choice.

Photography from the public road is unobjectionable, though the buildings are someone's home and deserve that consideration. The estate has occasionally been opened during local heritage events. Current information can be had from the Cultural Property Preservation and Utilisation Office of the Kaizuka City Board of Education, on 072-433-7126.