A Headman's Estate That Became a Museum
The Former Nagashima Family Residence (旧長島家住宅, Kyū Nagashima-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a former village-headman family in Koyatsubayashi, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, and eight of its structures, led by a late Edo-period main house and three Taisho-era stone storehouses, were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 6, 2024. The Nagashima Memorial Foundation now opens the estate to the public as the Nagashima Memorial Museum.
Koyatsubayashi (小八林) lies on the right bank of the Arakawa River, in flat rice country north of Tokyo. The Nagashimas served here as nanushi, the hereditary headmen who ran village affairs and collected the annual rice tax. Kumagaya City historians explain the "ko" (small) in the place name as a way of telling it apart from a larger village called Yatsubayashi farther downstream.
The reason the house survives as a museum is Kyōsuke Nagashima (1901 to 1992), who was born here in 1901, joined the Bushū Bank in 1923 and later rose to president and then chairman of the Saitama Bank. Late in life he planned a foundation that would fund scholarships and show the paintings and swords he had collected over decades. He died in September 1992 before it came about. His family set up the foundation in 1993 and opened the birthplace as a museum in 1994.
Official recognition came later. Kumagaya City protected the "Nagashima Memorial Museum and Residence" in March 2019, and in November 2023 the national Council for Cultural Affairs recommended all eight structures for the register.
How the Former Nagashima Family Residence Is Laid Out
The eight listed structures are the main house, the rice storehouse, the front storehouse, the rear storehouse, the front gate, the Kido gate, the nagayabei (a long storage range that doubles as a wall) and the outer stone wall. Their register numbers run consecutively from 11-0222 to 11-0229, and every one was listed under the same criterion: contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The register treats the Former Nagashima Family Residence as one composed scene, not eight separate buildings.
Read the plan from the south. Along the front edge, the rice storehouse fills the southeast corner, the front gate stands just west of it, and the nagayabei runs on westward; together they make the face the estate shows to the road. Inside the gate, the front storehouse lines the east side of the approach, facing west, and the main house sits near the center of the plot, a little east, facing south onto its garden.
A small Kido gate opens in the fence on the east side of that garden. Behind the main house stands the rear storehouse, and a long wall of Oya stone closes the north and west sides of the property.
The dates split cleanly in two. The main house, the front gate, the Kido gate and the nagayabei belong to the late Edo period, roughly 1751 to 1830. The three stone storehouses and the outer wall were added between about 1914 and 1920, in the Taisho era. So a thatched, timber-and-plaster homestead acquired, a century later, a set of two-story storehouses in soft green-gray Oya tuff, all three built to the same gabled, tile-roofed pattern.
Visiting the Former Nagashima Family Residence
The Former Nagashima Family Residence is open as the Nagashima Memorial Museum from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It closes on Mondays and Thursdays (it opens when these fall on a national holiday), on the day after a national holiday unless that day is a Saturday or Sunday, and for a summer break and the New Year period, whose dates the museum posts each year.
Admission is 300 yen for adults and 100 yen for elementary and junior high school students, reduced to 210 yen and 70 yen for groups of 20 or more. There is parking for 50 cars. The museum's phone number is 0493-39-2025.
Two kinds of display share the site. The main house holds a permanent exhibit of household tools from around the 1950s and 1960s, along with a collection of baseballs signed by Yomiuri Giants players. Converted storehouses serve as galleries for about 50 works from Kyōsuke's collection, rotated by season: Japanese-style paintings by Kawai Gyokudō and Yokoyama Taikan, Western-style paintings by Takada Makoto and Nakagawa Kazumasa, calligraphy by the industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi, and Japanese swords. The official guide does not state a photography policy, so ask at the reception desk before taking pictures indoors.
By public transport, take the Kumagaya city community bus Yuyu Bus, Himawari line, from the south exit of JR Kumagaya Station to its last stop, Nagashima Kinenkan-mae. The ride takes about 40 minutes and the museum is right at the stop. The fare is a flat 200 yen (100 yen for elementary school pupils). One Himawari departure does not run on Sundays, so check the timetable for your return trip as well. The museum lists the drive from JR Fukiage Station on the Takasaki Line as about 5 minutes.
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014738
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014739
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Outer Wall
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014745
- Kumagaya City: Eight structures including the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House registered (Japanese)
- https://www.city.kumagaya.lg.jp/about/soshiki/kyoiku/kounanbunkazaicenter/oshirase/ta22160120240.html
- Saitama Prefecture: New Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in Kumagaya City (Japanese)
- https://www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/f2216/news/page/news2023112402.html
- Kumagaya City: Nagashima Memorial Museum (Japanese)
- https://www.city.kumagaya.lg.jp/kanko/midokoro/nagashima.html
- Kumagaya City: Yuyu Bus routes and timetables (Japanese)
- https://www.city.kumagaya.lg.jp/about/soshiki/sogo/kikaku/koutu/yuuyuubasu.html
- Nagashima Memorial Museum: Hours, admission and access (Japanese)
- https://nagashimakinenkan.com/guide.html
- Nagashima Memorial Museum: About the foundation and museum (Japanese)
- https://nagashimakinenkan.com/about.html
- Nagashima Memorial Museum: Greeting from the foundation (Japanese)
- https://nagashimakinenkan.com/message.html
- Kumagaya Digital Museum (Kumagaya City Konan Cultural Property Center): Kyosuke Nagashima (Japanese)
- https://www.kumagaya-bunkazai.jp/museum/ijin/nagasimakyousuke.htm
Last verified: 2026.09.24
Basic Information
| Name | Former Nagashima Family Residence |
|---|---|
| Location | 1022 Ozakai, Koyatsubayashi, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture |
| Owner | Nagashima Memorial Foundation |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (8) |
| Coordinates | 36.07934, 139.43691 |
