Uno Family Residence Main House

What the Main House Is

The Uno Family Residence Main House (宇野家住宅主屋, Uno-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) in Kitamachi, Kaizuka City, Osaka Prefecture, is a large Machiya townhouse of the late Edo period (1830 to 1867) that became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 18, 2003. It is a single-storey wooden building with a tiled roof and a building area of 374 square meters, and it has an earthen wall attached.

The house stands toward the northwest of a property facing the old Kishū Kaidō highway. Kaizuka City gives its size as 9 ken along the ridge by 7 ken deep, a ken being a traditional unit of roughly 1.8 meters.

Built After the Ansei Earthquake

Tradition holds that the Uno Family Residence Main House was built after the Ansei earthquake. Kaizuka City identifies it as the Ansei Nankai earthquake of 1854.

Both the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the city frame this as tradition rather than record, and neither cites a document that fixes the year of construction. The Agency's database dates the house only to the late Edo period.

What the Agency valued in registering it was the scale of the townhouse and how well its interior survives. It is listed as register no. 27-0219, on the criterion that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

Great Beams over the Earthen Floor

The Agency singles out two features of the Uno Family Residence Main House: the heavy beam framing above the Doma earthen-floored work area, and the Zashiki reception rooms on the north side.

A single storey spread over 374 square meters means a house that grew outward rather than upward. Over the doma, thick beams carry that broad 9-by-7-ken plan.

The Agency's notes on the tea house add a glimpse of the rear. North of the Buddhist altar room, a Tsunoya wing projects from the main house and holds a small tea room of its own. The separate tea house is reached by a covered corridor from the reception room at the northeast corner.

Seeing the Main House

The interior of the Uno Family Residence Main House is not open to the public, so the beam framing and the north reception rooms cannot be visited.

The street front can be seen from the western side along the old Kishū Kaidō, with the registered high wall continuing to the north. Access and visiting conditions for the whole property are on the Uno Family Residence page.