Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence

About the Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence

The Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence (川崎光雄家住宅, Kawasaki Mitsuo-ke Jūtaku) is a private family estate on the old Tōkaidō highway in Tehara, Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, whose main house of 1903 and two storehouses from around 1912 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 21 April 1998. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database spells the surname with the variant character 﨑 (川﨑).

Tehara sits on the stretch of the Tōkaidō between the old post towns of Kusatsu and Ishibe. The main house occupies a lot that fronts the highway, yet it does not stand at the roadside; it is pulled back a short distance from the street.

Three Buildings, One Registration Day

All three buildings of the Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in the ninth round of registrations on 21 April 1998, under the consecutive numbers 25-0033 to 25-0035, with the official notice following on 9 June. The main house qualified as a building that "has become a model of design", while the two storehouses were registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives these dates and sizes:

• Main House: 1903, one-storey timber building with a tiled roof, building area 209 square meters
• North Storehouse: around 1912, 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, building area 17 square meters
• South Storehouse: around 1912, 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof, building area 30 square meters

Ritto City's list of cultural properties groups the three as one entry and assigns them all to the Taishō period. For the main house, the city's period and the national database's date of 1903 do not agree, and the database's own commentary credits the house with a refinement typical of the Taishō years.

How the Estate Is Arranged

The main house is a single-storey home with a low loft floor, or Tsushi-nikai, under its roof, and its east end drops to a lower ridge, an arrangement called Ochimune. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as following the farmhouse form used in this district since the Edo period. It is by far the largest of the three buildings, at more than 200 square meters.

The two storehouses are both 2-storey buildings of Dozo-zukuri earthen-wall construction with tiled roofs. According to the database, the South Storehouse is joined to the North Storehouse and built the same way, though at 30 square meters it is almost twice the size of its 17-square-meter neighbor.

The official commentary calls the South Storehouse a key element of the estate and an important part of the streetscape. So the face the Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence shows the old highway is a pairing: a house held back from the road, and a storehouse that shapes the view along it.

A Namesake a Few Doors Away

Farther along the same stretch of the old Tōkaidō, at 5-3-10 Tehara, stands the Kawasaki Mutsuo Family Residence (川﨑睦男家住宅), whose main house, detached annex, east storehouse and north storehouse were registered on the same day under numbers 25-0029 to 25-0032, immediately before those of the Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence. With the same surname, the same neighborhood and a "North Storehouse" in each, the two estates are easiest to tell apart by full name and street number.

One consequence shows up in the national database: the commentary printed for the Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence North Storehouse is word for word the commentary for the Kawasaki Mutsuo North Storehouse, even though the date, structure and floor-area fields for the two buildings differ.

Visiting and Getting There

The Kawasaki Mitsuo Family Residence is privately owned and not open to the public. Neither Ritto City nor the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists any open days or arrangements for visits (checked September 2026). Please stay off the property and view the exterior from the public road along the old Tōkaidō.

The nearest station is Tehara on the JR Kusatsu Line, one stop from Kusatsu. The estate lies about 300 meters southwest of the station in a straight line, a walk of about 5 minutes.