Yokouchi Family Residence Main House

The north-facing heart of the compound

The Yokouchi Family Residence Main House (横内家住宅主屋) in Shijocho, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, is a single-storey timber minka built in the early Meiji period (1868-1882); it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

It faces north on a plot that runs east to west, with the long gatehouse of the front gate standing in front of it. From its upper end a corridor leads to the detached inner parlor wing. With a building area of 149 m², the Yokouchi main house is the largest of the five registered structures.

A lowered roof over the earthen floor

The roof is a gabled form covered in pantiles. Over the earthen-floored work area the ridge drops a step, an arrangement called Ochimune, and lean-to roofs, or Geya, run around the walls and keep the whole building low.

The walls are clad in vertical boarding set between runs of latticework. Board joints and lattice bars both run upright, so the street front reads as a field of fine vertical lines.

The raised floor is laid out as a staggered version of the four-room Yomadori plan. Close to the earthen floor sits a Shikidai, a formal entrance step for receiving guests, and in the Yokouchi house it opens onto the forecourt behind the front gate.

A writer's touch in the 1930s

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yokouchi Family Residence Main House was reworked in the early Shōwa period (1926-1945) with sukiya-style detailing, under a head of the family who was a man of letters. The Meiji frame was kept, and the rooms were given a lighter, more cultivated finish.

Published sources do not say which rooms were changed. The agency judges the whole, alterations included, to be a fine minka that combines formality with taste.

The main house was registered on August 4, 2015, together with the other four structures of the compound (number 27-0631), under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Visiting

The Yokouchi main house is still a private home. We found no information on public access to the interior as of October 2026.

Because the front gate stands across its face, the main house itself is probably hard to see from the road. If you go, look at the exterior from the public street only and keep the residents' privacy in mind.