Fuwa Family Residence

What Is the Fuwa Family Residence?

The Fuwa Family Residence (不破家住宅, Fuwa-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant-style townhouse estate on the old Nakasendō highway in Takamiya-cho, Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, whose main house was built in 1857; four of its structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 29 November 2016. They are the main house, the storehouse, the gate and wall, and the high wall.

The estate sits on the east side of the old road, and the main house faces west onto it. It lies about 150 meters south of the great stone torii that marks the approach to Taga Taisha shrine, roughly in the middle of the former post town of Takamiya-juku.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as a large, solidly built dwelling that reflects the prosperity of the post town. What trade the Fuwa family followed is not recorded in any public commentary we could find.

The Fuwa Family Residence in Takamiya-juku

Takamiya-juku was a station on the Nakasendō, the inland route between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. Hikone City counts it as the 64th stop from Edo, about 474 kilometers from the capital and about 64 kilometers short of Kyoto. The town had one honjin, the inn reserved for daimyo and officials, and two secondary inns of the same kind. Near its center a pilgrim road branches off toward Taga Taisha, and the 11-meter stone torii at its entrance is a Shiga Prefecture designated cultural property.

Takamiya was also a market for Takamiya-nuno, a fine hemp cloth woven in the surrounding villages and brought here to be sold. Houses with udatsu firewalls and projecting side walls still line the road.

Within that streetscape, the Fuwa Family Residence presents a tall two-storey main house with its gable end to the road, together with a gate and wall set along the frontage.

Four Registered Structures

All four Fuwa Family Residence structures were entered in the 85th round of registration on 29 November 2016 as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, under the consecutive numbers 25-0380 to 25-0383. The storehouse was registered as a building that would be hard to reproduce; the other three for their contribution to the historic landscape. The national database gives the following dates and sizes.

• Main house: 1857, two-storey timber building with a tiled roof, building area 223 square meters
• Storehouse: 1853, two-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, building area 39 square meters
• Gate and wall: early Showa period, timber gate with a tiled roof 2.0 meters wide, walls 4.0 meters long in total
• High wall: early Showa period, timber with a tiled roof, 20 meters long

The oldest structure on the estate is therefore the storehouse, four years older than the main house. The gate and both walls belong to the early Showa period (1926 to 1945), so the enclosure at the front and rear was completed roughly 70 to 90 years after the late-Edo house and storehouse.

Layout of the Estate

The main house of the Fuwa Family Residence stands toward the west of the plot, fronting the old Nakasendō. The gate opens onto the street directly in front of the main entrance, with a short section of wall on each side.

The storehouse stands behind the main house to the east, its ridge running north to south. The high wall starts at the northeast corner of the main house, turns a right angle and runs to the storehouse, closing off the back garden. Along the north edge of the plot it rises from the stone embankment of a small waterway.

From the street you see the main house and the gate; the storehouse and high wall lie behind. The two front structures shape the face of the estate, and the two rear ones define its private back.

Visiting the Fuwa Family Residence

The Fuwa Family Residence is privately owned and not open to the public. The grounds cannot be entered, and neither Hikone City nor the Hikone tourism association lists any opening of the interior, the storehouse or the back garden.

What can be seen is the front of the main house and the gate and wall along the old Nakasendō. Please look from the public road and do not step onto the property.

The nearest station is Takamiya on the Ohmi Railway, three stops from JR Hikone Station on the Main Line; the Taga Line to Taga Taisha branches off here. The Fuwa Family Residence is about 450 meters southwest of the station in a straight line, roughly a 7-minute walk. Minami-Hikone Station on the JR Biwako Line is about 1.5 kilometers away in a straight line.