Otani Family Residence

Otani Family Residence: An Early Showa Estate on the Old Nakasendo

The Otani Family Residence (大谷家住宅, Ōtani-ke Jūtaku) is a Japanese-Western estate in Inaricho, Fukaya City, Saitama Prefecture, completed in 1931, and its nine buildings and structures were each registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004.

The man who built it was Otani Fujitoyo, head of a merchant house said to have traded in Fukaya-shuku, a post town on the Nakasendo highway, since the middle of the Edo period. He is recorded as mayor of Fukaya from 1929 to 1933 and is credited with helping found the town's commercial school.

Locals also call the place the former Otani Fujitoyo house. Because colored glass is set into windows and doors all through the interior, it has also been written up as the "House of Stained Glass."

A House Built to Keep Craftsmen Working

Fujitoyo commissioned the house in the depths of the early Showa depression, while he was mayor, with a clear aim: to put wages in the pockets of carpenters and tradesmen who had lost their work. Japanese has a word for this kind of relief project, otasuke fushin, and Fukaya City presents the Otani Family Residence as a textbook case built by local craftsmen.

A copper Munafuda fixed to the building is said to record the work and the names of the men who did it. According to that plaque, construction began on January 7, 1930, and finished on July 19, 1931. Master builders from three neighboring towns took part, and more than 100 workers were on site every day.

A year and a half of steady pay mattered to those families, and the unhurried, meticulous joinery found everywhere in the house is usually explained in that light.

The architect was Uozumi Giichi, an engineer who designed public buildings for Tokyo City after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and later moved to Tokushima, where he worked on the city hall. How he came to work for the Otani family has not been established.

How the Otani Family Residence Is Laid Out

The heart of the estate is the Main House, a building in the refined sukiya manner whose two-story south wing and single-story north wing meet at a right angle. A Western-Style House is attached to the south gable of the south wing, and a Middle Gate with a wall closes off the south front of both. That front is what passers-by on the old Nakasendo see.

West of the north wing stands the Main Storehouse from the late Meiji period, joined to the Main House by a corridor. A tiny shrine sits in the courtyard garden between the two, and the Shoteiyu, an open-air bathhouse, occupies the northeast corner of the lot. A Rear Gate opens near the east end of the north boundary, with a wall running along the north and east sides.

Two buildings stand outside the main lot. About 40 metres to the northwest is the Kokuan, a detached retreat from the early Taisho period, and across the road to the north is a reinforced-concrete Rice Storehouse.

• Main House: two-story south wing and single-story north wing in the sukiya manner
• Western-Style House: two-story Jugendstil wing attached to the Main House
• Main Storehouse: late Meiji two-story storehouse linked by a corridor
• Shrine: small hip-and-gable shrine in the courtyard garden
• Shoteiyu: open-air bathhouse facing the garden
• Middle Gate and Wall: gate and wall enclosing the south front
• Rear Gate and Wall: gate and wall bounding the north and east sides
• Kokuan: early Taisho detached retreat northwest of the Main House
• Rice Storehouse: reinforced-concrete storehouse across the road

What the Registration Covers

All nine were registered together on February 17, 2004. Seven (the Main House, Western-Style House, Main Storehouse, Shoteiyu, Shrine, Kokuan and Rice Storehouse) qualified as buildings that set a standard for design. The two gate-and-wall structures qualified for their contribution to the historic townscape.

The dates are not uniform. The Main Storehouse goes back to the late Meiji period and the Kokuan to the early Taisho period; the other seven belong to the 1931 campaign. The pattern suggests an older storehouse and retreat kept in place while the new work reorganized the whole estate around them.

Visiting the Otani Family Residence

The Otani Family Residence is still a private home and is not open to the public. You cannot enter the grounds, so a visit means looking at the exterior from the street. As of September 2026 we found no scheduled open days or tour arrangements.

From the road you mainly see the Middle Gate and its wall, the roof and arched windows of the Western-Style House rising above them, and part of the Main House behind. People live here, so keep photo stops brief and avoid pointing a camera over the wall into the rooms.

The nearest station is Fukaya on the JR Takasaki Line. From the north exit the house is about 1 kilometre to the northeast, roughly a 15-minute walk, on the old Nakasendo. No visitor parking is advertised.