Hatsuda Family Residence

Hatsuda Family Residence

The Hatsuda Family Residence (初田家住宅, Hatsuda-ke Jūtaku) is a late Edo-period Machiya townhouse compound in Chuo 2-chome, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, whose main house, storehouse and wall were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 28, 2010 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All three are dated to the late Edo period, and the main house was remodelled in 1934.

The property sits on the north side of Nakamachi-dori, with the main house facing south onto the street (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A second lane runs along the east side of the plot, and the wall that extends north from the back of the main house lines this lane. The house stands at the front, the storehouse at the back and the wall along the side.

The Agency calls the main house a typical townhouse of Otsu. The three structures of the Hatsuda Family Residence are also listed in the city's nationally approved plan for maintaining and improving its historic character (Otsu City).

A Townhouse in Otsu Hyakucho

According to the walking maps published by Machizukuri Otsu, the old town grew from the castle town laid out when Otsu Castle was built on the shore of Lake Biwa around 1586. In the Edo period Otsu prospered at once as a lake port, a post town on the Tokaido and the gateway town of Mii-dera, and by the mid-Edo period it had more than 100 town blocks, which gave it the name Otsu Hyakucho, the "hundred towns". Otsu machiya, influenced by the townhouses of nearby Kyoto, survive across the area.

Nakamachi-dori runs east to west between Kyomachi-dori, the line of the old Tokaido, and Hama-dori nearer the lake, and the same map marks the Hatsuda Family Residence on its route of townhouses.

The Three Structures

• Main house (registration number 25-0289): a two-storey timber townhouse facing south onto Nakamachi-dori, 9.1 metres wide with a building area of 121 square metres, built in the late Edo period and remodelled in 1934 (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
• Storehouse (registration number 25-0290): a two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse behind the main house to the north, 6.0 metres by 4.8 metres with a building area of 29 square metres, used to keep festival furnishings (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
• Wall (registration number 25-0291): a timber wall running north from the back of the main house along the lane on the east side, 9.2 metres long (Agency for Cultural Affairs)

The main house was registered as a model of design, and the storehouse and wall for their contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency notes that the wall and the main house together form a traditional streetscape. Each structure is described on its own page.

Reading the Compound

Start on Nakamachi-dori, facing the main house. Its white-plastered Shinkabe front carries Mushiko-mado slit windows on the upper floor and a projecting lattice, or Degōshi, at street level (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Turn the corner into the lane on the east side, and the wall runs on north from the back of the house. The storehouse stands inside this wall, behind the main house. From front to back, the order of house, wall and storehouse traces how the property is laid out.

Visiting

No official information on public opening or interior visits to the Hatsuda Family Residence was found, and the Agency database does not name an owner. Visitors can see the exterior from the street.

The nearest stations are JR Otsu Station on the Biwako Line and Keihan Biwako-Hamaotsu Station. In a straight line on the map, the house is about 540 metres north of Otsu Station and about 410 metres south of Biwako-Hamaotsu Station.