Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso)

What Is the Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso)?

The Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) (加藤家住宅（旧布惣）, Katō-ke Jūtaku, Kyū Nunosō) is a former hemp-cloth merchant's townhouse in Takamiya-cho, Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, whose main house and three earthen storehouses, all built in the late Edo period (1830 to 1868), became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 29 March 2013. It stands at the center of Takamiya-juku, a post town on the Nakasendo highway between Edo and Kyoto.

Nunoso was the shop name. Nuno means cloth, and the cloth in question was Takamiya-nuno, a fine hemp fabric woven in the villages around Takamiya and also sold as Omi-jofu. According to the Hikone Tourist Association, it was prized as a gift among the upper classes from the Muromachi period, and in the Edo period the Hikone domain protected it as a local specialty, so farm households across Echi District wove it as a side trade.

The Rise and Fall of a Cloth House

Nunoso worked as both wholesaler and retailer. Local tradition, as retold by the Hikone Tourist Association, ranks it with the Abe house of Notogawa and the Yamanaka house of Gokasho as one of the three great cloth merchants of the prefecture. A normal year, the story goes, meant filling seven storehouses with cloth and emptying them 12 times over, and eight tailoring workshops sewing for the firm still could not keep up with orders.

From the middle of the Meiji period, silk and cotton pushed hemp aside. Nunoso was the last cloth dealer left in Takamiya, and it closed around 1911. The same source says five storehouses still stand and that the shop's old signboard reading 高宮嶋 (Takamiya-jima) survives.

Takamiya-juku was the 64th stop on the Nakasendo counting from Edo, and it doubled as the gateway town for Taga Taisha shrine. A survey of 1843 records a main street about 800 meters long, 835 houses and 3,560 residents, a size the hemp trade helped sustain. The Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) sits in the middle of that street.

Four Registered Buildings

All four buildings of the Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) were entered on the national register together in the 74th round, on 29 March 2013, as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties under consecutive numbers 25-0324 to 25-0327. Each was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main House: late Edo period, altered in 1940 and 2009, two-storey timber building with a tiled roof, 202 square meters in plan
• First Storehouse: late Edo period, altered in 2009, two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse, 23 square meters
• Second Storehouse: late Edo period, two-storey earthen-walled storehouse, 15 square meters
• Third Storehouse: late Edo period, two-storey earthen-walled storehouse, 41 square meters

All four have gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roofs laid with tile. The database dates them only to the late Edo period as a span, and none of the sources consulted fixes a year for any single building.

How the Lot Is Laid Out

The main house of the Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) faces west onto the Nakasendo, with the shop at the front and the living rooms behind, the usual plan of a merchant's Machiya. The First Storehouse stands beside it on the north, also fronting the street. These two are the buildings a passer-by sees.

The other two sit deeper in the lot. The Second Storehouse stands behind the main house on its north side, facing south, and the Third Storehouse stands alone in the far southeast corner. The largest of the three storehouses is thus the one farthest from the street, while the smallest tucks in right behind the house.

Visiting and Getting There

No regular public opening or visiting hours for the Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) could be found on the websites of Hikone City or the Hikone Tourist Association. Plan to see the main house and the First Storehouse from the Nakasendo street rather than from inside. The Second and Third Storehouses, at the back of the lot, are largely hidden from the road.

The nearest station is Takamiya on the Ohmi Railway. The Kato Family Residence (Former Nunoso) lies about 270 meters west of the station in a straight line, roughly a five-minute walk. From JR Hikone Station on the Biwako Line, change to the Ohmi Railway; Takamiya is two stops away. The old highway in front of the house is narrow, so watch for cars while taking photographs.