Wada Family Residence Main House

A Yamatomune Farmhouse in Kawachinagano

The Wada Family Residence Main House (和田家住宅主屋, Wada-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a large farmhouse in the Yamatomune style, built in the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882) in Nosakucho, Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 November 2018. It stands in the middle of its plot near the centre of the city, facing east.

The main roof is a steep Kirizuma-zukuri gable of Kayabuki thatch, now covered with temporary metal sheeting, and at each end a lower Ochimune roof of Hongawarabuki tiles joins it. That pairing of a tall thatched ridge with tiled wings at a lower level is what defines yamatomune. The house is single-storey, with a building area of 210 square metres, and was remodelled around 1974.

The Family and the Registration

According to Kawachinagano City, a genealogy kept by the family traces its line to the Kusunoki clan of the fourteenth century and records that the family settled on this spot on 22 February 1776. In the Edo period the Wada served as village headmen, and Wada Yojibei, the third head of the house, worked to open up the Akamine new fields. Villagers later raised a memorial stone to him in what is now Teragaike Park.

The Wada Family Residence Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic townscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a large yamatomune house and a symbol of its settlement, and it is easy to see why: the standing of the family and the bulk of the roof make the house the natural centre of the neighbourhood.

The sources differ on the temporary covering over the thatch: the Agency for Cultural Affairs says steel sheet, while Kawachinagano City says copper.

Layout and Highlights

Inside, the north end is a Doma, the earth-floored work area, and the south part holds two rows of three rooms each. A Shikidai entrance, the formal entry reserved for receiving guests of rank, sits in the middle of the front row, fitting for a family that served as headmen.

Kawachinagano City reads the plan closely. The three front rooms, reached from the shikidai, were for receiving visitors; the three rear rooms, reached through the main doorway, were the family's living space. Guests and household moved along separate lines.

At the south end there are two formal rooms facing opposite ways, one toward the front and one toward the back, so the house has reception rooms turned in both directions.

From outside, look at the roofline: a high central ridge flanked by stepped-down tiled roofs, a profile found mainly in Nara Prefecture and the south of Osaka Prefecture.

Visiting and Getting There

The Wada Family Residence Main House is privately owned and is not open to the public. No official source from Kawachinagano City or elsewhere lists tours or open days (checked 29 September 2026).

The nearest station is Kawachinagano on the Nankai Koya Line and Kintetsu Nagano Line, around 15 minutes on foot from Nosakucho. It is a residential area, so view the house only from the road and take photographs without intruding on the people who live there.

Teragaike Park, where the memorial stone to Wada Yojibei stands, is a site connected with the family's history.