Yokoyama Family Residence (Takatsuki)

The Yokoyama Family Residence and Its Layout

The Yokoyama Family Residence (横山家住宅, Yokoyama-ke Jūtaku) is a historic family house in Johokucho, Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture, built around a main house dated 1835, whose five structures (main house, retirement building, storehouse, barn, and gate and wall) were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2013. Locally it is also introduced as the Yokoyama Family Residence (Yokoyama Clinic). A registered property with the same Japanese name stands in Komono, Mie Prefecture; it is a separate place.

The plot lies on the north side of a street in the old castle town of Takatsuki. The main house faces south onto that street. To its east, set back a step from the road, stands the retirement building, and a gate and short wall in front of it enclose a small forecourt. At the rear of the plot are the storehouse, with its ridge running north to south, and the barn just east of it, with its ridge running east to west. A single-storey annex is joined to the northwest of the main house and is included in the main house registration.

Standing in the street, you see the main house on the left and the retirement building with its gate and wall on the right. Takatsuki City, in the citation for its townscape award, describes the dark latticed front and white upper floor of the main house, the retirement building and its gate continuing to the east, and the softly colored wall, and says that together with the restored street they convey the character of a castle town.

The Only Surviving Gōyado in the Castle Town

The Agency for Cultural Affairs identifies the main house of the Yokoyama Family Residence as the only surviving building in the former castle town of Takatsuki that served as a gōyado (郷宿) in the Edo period. A gōyado was an inn for village officials and farmers who came into the castle town on official business. The city's cultural property plan also cites the Yokoyama Family Residence in Johokucho, in the northern part of the old town, as the remains of such an inn.

The dating of the main house is not settled. The national database gives 1835, with alterations in 1971. Takatsuki City's townscape award page says the house was built about 300 years ago and heavily rebuilt roughly a century later, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi gives 1729 as the construction date. The 1835 date may correspond to that rebuilding, but none of the sources explains the relationship, so this page follows the national database.

Takatsuki Castle disappeared after the castle abolition order of 1873, though the street pattern of its town survives. The retirement building and the gate and wall date from the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882), so part of the Yokoyama Family Residence took shape just as the castle town lost its original role. The city's award text and Osaka Bunkazai Navi both record that the politician Itagaki Taisuke stayed here in 1892.

In fiscal 2019 the Yokoyama Family Residence was one of eight winners in the buildings category of the first Takatsuki City Townscape Awards.

The Five Registered Structures

All five structures of the Yokoyama Family Residence were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 24, 2013, under consecutive numbers 27-0574 to 27-0578. Each was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

• Yokoyama Family Residence Main House: 1835, altered 1971; wooden, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 171 m²
• Yokoyama Family Residence Retirement Building: early Meiji period; wooden, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 85 m²
• Yokoyama Family Residence Gate and Wall: early Meiji period; wooden gate with tiled roof, 1.3 m wide; wooden wall with tiled coping, 7.3 m in total length
• Yokoyama Family Residence Storehouse: late Edo period; earthen-walled, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 21 m²
• Yokoyama Family Residence Barn: late Edo period; earthen-walled, 2 storeys, tiled roof, building area 63 m²

Set side by side, the dates show an Edo-period core (the main house and the storehouse and barn behind it) and an early Meiji addition along the eastern street frontage (the retirement building with its gate and wall). All five have tiled roofs: the official descriptions give the storehouse a Hongawarabuki roof of round and flat tiles, and the others the simpler Sangawara-buki pantiles. White walls plastered right up to the eaves appear on the upper floor of the main house and on the storehouse and barn, and vertical boarding at the base of the wall appears on the storehouse and the wall.

Visiting the Yokoyama Family Residence

The Yokoyama Family Residence is a private home that also houses the Yokoyama Clinic. Osaka Bunkazai Navi notes that parts of the house are opened occasionally, without a fixed schedule, but no official notice of an opening date could be found as of October 2026. Assume the interior is closed and enjoy the exterior from the street.

From the street you can see the front of the main house, the upper floor of the retirement building, and the gate and wall before it. The storehouse and barn are at the back of the plot. Patients come and go from the clinic, so please do not linger at the entrance, and keep photography to the exterior as seen from the road.

By straight-line distance calculated from map coordinates, the Yokoyama Family Residence is about 330 m southwest of Takatsukishi Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line and about 500 m southeast of Takatsuki Station on the JR Kyoto Line. It sits in the northern part of the old castle town; the latticed front and white upper floor of the main house make it easy to spot.