Former Ishibashi Family Residence

The Former Ishibashi Family Residence: Eleven Buildings on One Street Front

The Former Ishibashi Family Residence (旧石橋家住宅, Kyū Ishibashi-ke Jūtaku) is a townhouse compound in Serimachi, Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, built in stages between the late Edo period and the late Meiji period, and its 11 structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on June 21, 2013. The compound is owned by Hikone City.

Three main houses stand shoulder to shoulder along the street; reading eastward, they are the West, Middle and East Main Houses. Behind them are four storehouses (East, Middle, West and South), and four walls (South, Garden, West and North) tie the buildings together and trace the edge of the plot. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gave the eleven entries consecutive registration numbers, 25-0335 to 25-0345, all under the registration criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

What sets the Former Ishibashi Family Residence apart is that it is not one townhouse but three, built at different times and lined up side by side. According to the national records, the West Main House dates from the late Edo period, the Middle Main House from the early Meiji period and the East Main House from the late Meiji period. Walk the frontage heading east and each house you pass is younger than the last.

The public records consulted for this page say nothing about the Ishibashi family's trade or its successive heads. For now, the buildings themselves are the most reliable account of the household.

How the Former Ishibashi Family Residence Is Laid Out

All three main houses face south onto the street with their ridges aligned. The East Main House, the easternmost, pushes a two-storey front block (omoteya) out to the street and places the living quarters at the back, beyond an entrance and a small courtyard. This arrangement is known as omoteya-zukuri, and at 282 square metres the East Main House is the largest of the eleven buildings. The Middle Main House sits between its two neighbours, and the West Main House is joined to its western side.

The storehouses cluster behind the houses. Directly behind the East Main House, the East and Middle Storehouses, almost identical in size, stand side by side with their ridges running north to south. The West Storehouse occupies the northwest corner of the plot behind the Middle Main House, and the South Storehouse is attached to that house's kitchen.

The four walls are registered individually too. The South Wall, a tall wall 3.3 metres high, runs between the East and Middle Main Houses and turns along the east side of the East Main House, giving the street front a firm edge. The Garden Wall links the South Storehouse with the northeast corner of the Middle Main House, the West Wall encloses the northwest corner, and the North Wall closes the gap between the Middle and West Storehouses. Registering even the walls one by one treats the outline of the whole property as part of the Former Ishibashi Family Residence landscape.

The Former Ishibashi Family Residence and the Serimachi Streetscape

Serimachi lies in the southeast corner of the old castle town of Hikone. In the Edo period this merchant and artisan district was called Seri-shinmachi, and Hikone City notes that it had taken shape by 1641. The gently S-shaped street that runs about 780 metres north of Serimachi through Kawaramachi was selected on July 25, 2016 as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the Hikone Kawaramachi-Serimachi district.

Hikone City describes the typical townhouse here as a two-storey building with a gabled tile roof, often with a low attic storey (Tsushi-nikai) lit by slatted mushiko windows and a firewall wing (Udatsu) at the side. The West Main House of the Former Ishibashi Family Residence fits that pattern closely, while its neighbour, the East Main House, belongs to the large omoteya type that the national description calls rare in Shiga. Standing in front of the compound, you can compare the district's standard townhouse and one of its grandest in a single view.

Of the five cultural property buildings listed by the city within the district, the Former Ishibashi Family Residence accounts for 11 structures, while each of the other four is a single building. The compound also served as a filming location for the 2022 feature film Omi Shonin, Hashiru!

Visiting the Former Ishibashi Family Residence

The interiors of the Former Ishibashi Family Residence are not open to the public, so a visit means viewing the buildings from the street. The Hikone Tourism Association lists the Middle Main House as exterior viewing only. The fronts of the three main houses and the South Wall are visible from the road, but the storehouses and the Garden Wall stand deeper in the plot and are largely screened by the houses.

The nearest station is Hikone-Serikawa on the Ohmi Railway, about 5 minutes away on foot. From Hikone Station (JR and Ohmi Railway) it is roughly a 15-minute walk, or take a local bus to the Ginza stop and walk about 3 minutes (all times from Hikone City, checked in September 2026). There is no visitor parking near the preservation district; the city asks drivers to use the tourist car parks around Hikone Castle.

Serimachi is a lived-in street of homes and shops. If you stop to photograph the Former Ishibashi Family Residence, keep clear of doorways and passing traffic.