Tsuji Family Residence

A Village Headman's Compound in Ikenohara

Tsuji Family Residence (辻家住宅, Tsuji-ke Jūtaku) is a Meiji-era farming estate in Ikenohara, Osakasayama City, Osaka Prefecture, whose seven buildings and walls, the oldest dating to 1870 and the main house to 1879, were each registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2006. It sits northwest of Sayama-ike, a reservoir that still waters the rice fields around the house.

The Tsuji served as village officials and shōya, or headmen, of Iwamuro, a village in the old Tannan District of Kawachi Province. The size of the compound and the way it presents itself to the road say as much about that role as any document.

The estate faces south. A long nagayamon gatehouse runs east to west along the southern edge; behind it the thatched main house turns its front to the sun. Along the north edge stand the main storehouse, a small living-room building and the rice storehouse, shoulder to shoulder. A tile-capped high wall about 42 metres long closes the west side, and a shorter partition wall divides the front garden in two. Both the outer boundary and the internal divisions are registered, which is what makes the Tsuji compound unusual.

Seven Registrations, One Landscape

All seven structures at Tsuji Family Residence were registered on the same day, under consecutive numbers 27-0353 to 27-0359, and published in the official gazette on March 23, 2006. Every one of them was listed under the same criterion: that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

That wording matters. The register is less concerned with any single building as architecture than with what the group adds up to. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' own notes assign each piece a role: the gatehouse shapes the front of the estate, the high wall shapes the street, the main storehouse shapes the northern edge, the living room shapes the back of the lot. Remove one and the outline of the Tsuji Family Residence compound falls apart.

The dates spread across the Meiji period. The oldest buildings are the two storehouses of 1870; the main house followed in 1879. The living room dates to the later Meiji years, and the gatehouse and both walls to the Meiji era more generally. Storage came first and the dwelling nine years later, an order that fits a farming household securing its harvest and goods before anything else.

In 1974 the eastern half of the main house interior was remodelled for modern living, with the original frame kept in place. The thatch was renewed again in 1999. The registration recognises a house that has been lived in and cared for continuously, not one frozen in time.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The gatehouse of Tsuji Family Residence opens slightly east of centre, with an attendants' room to the east of the passage and a barn to the west. Through the gate lies a clipped front garden and, straight ahead, the formal shikidai entrance of the main house.

From the west end of that entrance, the partition wall runs south and then turns west. East of it is the forecourt of the family's living rooms; west of it is the garden that belongs to the formal reception room. One wall separates the space for guests from the space for daily life.

North of the main house, the main storehouse stands with its ridge running north to south, linked to the house by a covered corridor. To its east is the living room, then the rice storehouse. The living room sits lower than the storehouses on either side, so from the fields to the north a small roof appears tucked between two taller ones.

On the west, the high wall leaves the gatehouse's west gable, runs north, and turns along the northern boundary until it meets the main storehouse. Its tiles carry the Tsuji family crest of paired oak leaves. Building and wall join without a break, and the outer edge of Tsuji Family Residence is closed.

Visiting and Getting There

Tsuji Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public. Osakasayama City's own list of local cultural properties marks it as closed. You cannot enter the grounds, and lingering at the gate is best avoided.

Parts of the exterior can be seen from public roads. The best view is from the rice fields to the north, behind the house, where the thatched roof and the row of storehouses line up together. The high wall follows the road along the west side. Keep any photography to the public road, and avoid capturing the residents or their daily routine.

The nearest station is Osakasayamashi on the Nankai Koya Line. The residence lies roughly 1.3 kilometres west of the station in a straight line, on the northwest side of Sayama-ike. The address is 4-927 Ikenohara, Osakasayama City, Osaka Prefecture.