Koizumi Family Residence

About the Koizumi Family Residence

The Koizumi Family Residence (小泉家住宅, Koizumi-ke Jūtaku) is an Omi merchant's estate in Gokasho Yamamoto-cho, Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, where fourteen buildings, gates and walls dating from a main house of about 1844 through a rear gate of 1938 were entered on Japan's national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 4, 2015.

Each of the fourteen is a separate registration, numbered consecutively 25-0360 to 25-0373. Eleven are buildings: the main house, two reception wings, a string of storehouses, a barn, a Western-style house and a service wing. The other three pair a gate with its wall.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as built on a scale fitting the home of an Omi merchant, one of the trading families from this part of Shiga who ran businesses across Japan. The ten structures on lot 270 belong to Koizumi Shoten Co., Ltd.; for the four on lot 266 (the Western-style house, the large storehouse, the rice storehouse and the rear gate) the national database gives no owner.

An Estate Assembled in 1907

Put the construction dates of the Koizumi Family Residence in order and a clear story appears. The oldest buildings, the main house, the Koyagura storehouse and the Tatsumi storehouse, are dated to about 1844. All three were moved to this site in 1907, together with the zashiki reception wing of about 1866.

Around that relocation came a burst of new work: the Western-style house in about 1906, the front gate, front wall and barn in about 1907, and the Bunko storehouse and the small Western room in 1909. The family brought late Edo buildings onto the lot and filled the space around them with new storehouses and rooms in a Western manner, so that the frame of the estate was in place within a few years.

The Taisho era added the lower privy and middle gate (about 1915) and the new zashiki wing, and the main house was remodeled at around the same time. The last major campaign came in about 1938, when the rear gate and wall were built and the large storehouse, the rice storehouse, the Western-style house and the front gate were renovated.

How the Koizumi Family Residence Is Laid Out

Reading the Agency's descriptions together, the Koizumi Family Residence presents its formal face to the north. The front gate stands at the northeast corner facing north. Its wall runs west, where there is a small wicket door, and to the east turns sharply south until it meets the barn.

The main house sits toward the east end of the north side and faces east. The Koyagura storehouse lies just north of it, and the Bunko storehouse stands at the center of the north edge. Across an inner courtyard to the east are the Tatsumi storehouse and the barn; the zashiki wing joins the southeast corner of the main house, and the new zashiki wing continues along the east edge. The lower privy and middle gate divide the front garden from the courtyard.

The western half of the estate is lot 266. The Western-style house stands midway along the west edge, the large storehouse to its north and the rice storehouse in the northwest corner, while the rear gate and its wall close off the southern half of the west side. Behind the main house, the small Western wing and the apprentices' rooms form a long east-west block.

One detail repeats across almost every building: the lower walls are clad in funaita, planks salvaged from old river boats. The Agency's note on the Koyagura storehouse singles this out as a feature of the local building tradition.

Visiting the Koizumi Family Residence

The Koizumi Family Residence is private property. As of September 2026 we could find no announcement of regular or special public openings, and the grounds cannot be entered. Please limit your visit to looking at the exterior from the public road, take photographs only from the road, and keep in mind that this is a lived-in home.

The nearest station is Gokasho on the Ohmi Railway Main Line, about 2 km from the estate in a straight line. Notogawa Station on the JR Biwako Line is about 4.5 km away, so from there a bus or taxi is needed. Higashiomi City's directions suggest changing from the JR line to the Ohmi Railway at Hikone; the ride to Gokasho takes about 23 minutes.