What the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House Is
The Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House (旧長島家住宅主屋, Kyū Nagashima-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is a late Edo-period farmhouse in Koyatsubayashi, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 6, 2024. It was the living heart of the Nagashima estate, home to a family of village headmen, and it stands a little east of the center of the plot, facing south over the main garden.
The house is a single-story timber building with a large thatched roof. The thatch is now sheathed in copper sheet, which the national register describes as a temporary covering, and a skirt of tiled lean-to roofs runs around the base. The building covers 209 square meters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the late Edo period, between 1751 and 1830.
The museum's own literature calls the house more than 300 years old. The registration record gives a later date, and this article follows the record.
The house kept changing while people lived in it. It was extended around 1945 and renovated around 1975 and again in 1990. According to the museum, a room for the person who looked after Kyōsuke Nagashima in his retirement was added in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and it has been kept as it was and turned into a display room.
Why the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House Was Registered
The Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape, and the registration notes single out the way its floor plan expresses the standing of an old family.
A broad earth-floored work area, the doma, fills the east side. To the west, the raised floor is divided into four rooms in a grid, the tanoji plan named after the four-square character 田. That much is common to farmhouses across the Kanto region.
What sets this house apart is a corner room projecting from the western end and fitted out as a jōdan-no-ma, a formal room with its floor set one step higher than the rest. Such rooms were generally built in the homes of headmen and other village officials to receive visitors of higher rank. Both Kumagaya City and Saitama Prefecture point to it as the feature that marks the house as a family seat.
Read from east to west, the plan moves from work space to family rooms to a room for guests of standing. It is the layout of a working farm that also served as the village office.
What to Look For at the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House
Start with the roof. The copper keeps the full bulk of the thatch, and the band of tiled lean-tos wraps around its lower edge, so two roofs of different materials read as one. That combination is the visible record of how a thatched house has been kept standing into the present.
Indoors, pause at the line where the earth floor meets the raised floor. From there you can take in the whole sequence at once, and the rooms grow more formal the farther west you go, ending at the stepped-up guest room.
The Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House also hosts the museum's permanent exhibit of everyday household goods from the postwar decades, along with a case of baseballs signed by Yomiuri Giants players. Seeing mid-twentieth-century kitchenware inside an eighteenth-century plan makes the long occupation of the house tangible.
Visiting the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House
The Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House is open as the main building of the Nagashima Memorial Museum, and you can go inside on opening days with a museum ticket. Because many rooms double as galleries, how far you can walk, including into the formal guest room, depends on the current display. Ask at reception about photography indoors.
For the full facade, stand in the garden to the south; the official registration photograph is taken from that side. Behind the house to the north is the rear storehouse, and the front storehouse lines the east side. Walking between the three is the quickest way to see where the house sits within the estate.
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Q&A
- When was the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House built?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the late Edo period, 1751 to 1830. It was extended around 1945 and renovated around 1975 and in 1990. The museum describes it as over 300 years old, which is earlier than the registered date.
- When did the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House become a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- It was registered on March 6, 2024, together with seven other structures on the estate, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape.
- Can I go inside the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House?
- Yes. It is the main building of the Nagashima Memorial Museum and can be entered on opening days with an admission ticket. Some rooms are used as galleries, so access depends on the display.
- What is the raised guest room in the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House?
- It is a jōdan-no-ma, a formal room with a raised floor, set as a corner room at the west end of the four-room grid. Rooms of this kind were typically built to receive high-ranking visitors, and the registration notes cite it as a sign of the family's status.
- Why is the roof of the Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House covered in copper?
- The roof is thatched, and the thatch is currently protected by a copper sheet covering that the register records as temporary. The lean-to roofs around it are tiled.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Nagashima Family Residence Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 1022 Ozakai, Koyatsubayashi, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered March 6, 2024 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | One story, timber frame; building area 209 square meters |
| Owner | Nagashima Memorial Foundation |
| Public Access | Open as part of the Nagashima Memorial Museum (admission charged); interior accessible |
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
- Kumagaya City: Eight structures of the Former Nagashima Family Residence 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
- Nagashima Memorial Museum: News and permanent exhibit (Japanese)
- https://nagashimakinenkan.com/info/information
- Nagashima Memorial Museum: About the foundation and museum (Japanese)
- https://nagashimakinenkan.com/about.html
Last verified: 2026.09.24
