Yamano Family Residence

What the Yamano Family Residence Is

The Yamano Family Residence (山野家住宅, Yamano-ke Jūtaku) is the compound of a sake-brewing family in Kisabe, Katano City, Osaka Prefecture, where six structures centred on a late Edo-period main house were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2003.

The Yamano family still brews here. The business trades as Yamano Shuzo, best known for its Katanosakura label, and the brewery says the craft has been handed down in Katano since the late Edo period. What makes the Yamano Family Residence worth a detour is the way home and workplace share a single plot: a farmhouse-scale dwelling, a long gatehouse, fireproof storehouses and the brewing sheds all stand inside one wall.

Osaka Bunkazai Navi, a database run by the Osaka architects' association and partner groups, puts the site at about 4,800 square metres. The district name, written 私部, is read Kisabe.

How the Compound Came Together

Not every building at the Yamano Family Residence started life on this spot. The main house was a late Edo farmhouse in neighbouring Neyagawa and was dismantled and re-erected here toward the end of the Taisho era. The storehouse behind its inner reception rooms is said to have been built new at the same time, to hold the household's furnishings and heirlooms.

The gatehouse is a transplant too. It dates from the Meiji era and was moved to the site in the early Showa years.

Among the brewing buildings, Sake Brewery 1 in the northwest corner is the oldest, from the Meiji era, while Sake Brewery 4 beside it went up in the early Showa years. The boundary wall is Taisho work. In other words, the compound you see today was assembled between the Meiji and early Showa eras, pairing older buildings brought in from elsewhere with storehouses built for the family's needs.

The Six Registered Structures

All six were registered on January 31, 2003, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

• Yamano Family Residence Main House (registration no. 27-0206): late Edo period, moved here in the late Taisho era; single-storey timber, building area 366 square metres.
• Yamano Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (27-0207): Meiji era, moved here in the early Showa years; a hip-and-gable gatehouse 18 bays long.
• Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 1 (27-0208): Meiji era; a 2-storey storehouse-type brewery in the northwest corner.
• Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4 (27-0209): early Showa; a 2-storey building for making koji.
• Yamano Family Residence Storehouse (27-0210): Taisho era; a storehouse joined to the back of the main house.
• Yamano Family Residence Earthen Wall (27-0211): Taisho era; 47 metres of earthen wall under round-tile coping.

Reading the Compound from the Street

Start on the south side. The gatehouse faces south from the southwest part of the plot, its long Irimoya-zukuri roof running parallel to the road. The lower wall is clad in tall Shitami-itabari weatherboarding, broken by two projecting lattice windows (Degōshi) with slatted Mushiko-mado openings above. Look up at the eaves: they are carried on projecting beams in the Degeta-zukuri manner, and even the rafters are sealed in white Shikkui plaster.

From the west end of the gate, the earthen wall doglegs along the boundary and heads north. It sits on a cut-stone base right at the edge of the roadside gutter, with a moulded band at the top and a round-tile roof.

Above the wall rise the gables. The storehouse north of the main house, Sake Brewery 4 beyond it and Sake Brewery 1 in the corner turn their triangular end walls, large and small, toward the street. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out this staggered row of gables as the element that gives the Yamano Family Residence its distinctive street face. The main house itself sits in the middle of the plot, toward the west, and is hard to see as a whole from outside.

Getting There and What You Can See

The Yamano Family Residence is about a 12-minute walk from Katanoshi Station on the Keihan Katano Line, according to the brewery. No visitor parking is advertised.

This is a private home and a working brewery. The interiors are not open to the public, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi lists the site as closed to visitors. What you can see is what the public road shows you: the gatehouse, the earthen wall and the storehouse gables. Please stay outside the gate and take photographs from the street.

The brewery keeps business hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closes on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, though it opens on Saturdays in December. On weekdays there is work traffic in and out of the gate, so keep clear of the entrance if you stop to look. Questions about the buildings are best put to the brewery during those hours.