Maeda Family Residence (Imari)

The Maeda Family Residence estate

The Maeda Family Residence (前田家住宅, Maeda-ke Jūtaku) in Tachibanacho, Imari City, Saga Prefecture, is the estate of the family that served as grand village headmen of the Imari district, and its six buildings, dating from the late Edo period to the late Meiji period, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2001. Locally the house also goes by its trade name, Kushiya (櫛屋).

According to Imari City, the plot is long and narrow, running north to south, and covers about 1,000 tsubo, or roughly 3,300 square meters. The thatched main house stands near the middle and faces south, while the west side of the estate meets the road. The city places it in the Nishi-Enzoji area of Tachibanacho.

The layout is easiest to follow from the main house outward. The East Storehouse adjoins the eastern end of the main house's reception wing. North of the earth-floored work area stands the West Storehouse, and north of that the Water Mill, both fronting the road along the west side. Along the northern boundary are the North Storehouse and, against its west wall, the Firewood Shed. With the Water Mill, these enclose the back yard where the household's daily work was done.

Facing the reception rooms is Ien (漪園), a pond garden fed by water drawn from the Imari River. The owners say it was named by Koga Seiri, the Saga-born Confucian scholar counted among the "Three Doctors of the Kansei Era." The garden itself is not part of the registration.

History of the Maeda Family Residence

Through the Edo period the Maeda family held the post of ōjōya for the Imari district. An ōjōya oversaw the Shōya headmen of the individual villages, and the Maeda Family Residence has a run of formal rooms for receiving guests of different rank to match that role.

The owners date the main house to around 1784. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database assigns the main house and the East Storehouse to the late Edo period, records the Water Mill as late Edo with alterations in the late Meiji period, and dates the West Storehouse, North Storehouse and Firewood Shed to the late Meiji period. In other words, the storehouses and outbuildings that complete the estate today were added around the Edo-era main house during the second half of the Meiji period.

In November 2005 Saga Prefecture recognized the Maeda Family Residence as a Saga Prefecture Heritage site, a local scheme for buildings that represent their community. The owners began regular public openings in May 2022, and the rooms, earth-floored area and garden can also be rented for events.

The six registered buildings

All six buildings of the Maeda Family Residence were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 28, 2001, under the consecutive registration numbers 41-0019 to 41-0024. The main house was registered as a model of form, the East Storehouse and the Water Mill as buildings that would be hard to reproduce, and the West Storehouse, North Storehouse and Firewood Shed for their contribution to the historic landscape.

• Main House: late Edo period, single-story timber building with a thatched roof, 291 square meters
• East Storehouse: late Edo period, earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, 51 square meters
• West Storehouse: late Meiji period, earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, 139 square meters
• Water Mill: late Edo period, altered in the late Meiji period, single-story timber building with a tiled roof, 57 square meters
• North Storehouse: late Meiji period, earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, 61 square meters
• Firewood Shed: late Meiji period, single-story timber building with a tiled roof, 30 square meters

Imari City values the Maeda Family Residence for what it shows about how a large farmhouse estate was laid out and how its parts worked together. Living quarters, guest rooms, a storehouse opening off the formal rooms, a big storehouse on the street, a back-yard store, a woodshed and a mill building all survive on one plot. That completeness is what sets the estate apart.

One point to keep in mind on site: for all three storehouses, the structure field of the agency database reads "single-story," while its descriptive text calls each of them two-story.

Visiting the Maeda Family Residence

The Maeda Family Residence is opened by its owners on set days. According to the owners, since January 2024 it has been open on the first and third Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on the second and fourth Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Visitors are asked for a donation of at least 300 yen per person toward upkeep, optional for high school students and younger. The owners note that no one may be on hand for part of the opening hours and that some opening days may be cancelled, so check their website before you go (as of October 2026).

A visit centers on the earth-floored area and reception rooms of the main house and on the Ien garden. The interiors of the storehouses and outbuildings are not offered for viewing, and the East Storehouse is excluded even from the rental spaces. The owners' website says nothing about photography, so ask on arrival.

The nearest station is Imari, served by the JR Chikuhi Line and Matsuura Railway, and Imari City gives the walk as about 10 minutes. The west side of the Maeda Family Residence borders the road, and the line of thatched main house, West Storehouse and Water Mill that the agency describes as the estate's west front is seen from there.