About the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence
The Kuzuno Joman Family Residence (葛野常満家住宅, Kuzuno Jōman-ke Jūtaku) in Katsuragawa Bomuracho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, is a pair of buildings, a main house of the Tenpō era (1830–1843) and a storehouse built in 1873, both registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2001.
Bomura is a small settlement in a valley on the western side of the Hira Mountains, strung along the old Wakasa Kaidō, the road between Kyoto and the Wakasa coast that Route 367 follows today and that is still known as the Saba Kaidō, or Mackerel Road. It grew up at the gate of Myōōin, a Tendai temple. Otsu City dates the temple to 859, when the Mount Hiei monk Sōō is said to have perceived the deity Fudō Myōō here, and it has served ever since as a training hall for kaihōgyō, the long walking discipline of the Tendai school.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the Kuzuno Joman family served as the temple's mandokoro, the office that handled its business and its estates. The household that carried that duty holds the corner plot at the very entrance to the temple-gate settlement.
Two Buildings of the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence at the Head of the Approach
The Kuzuno Joman Family Residence occupies the corner where the temple approach turns off the Wakasa Kaidō. Directly across the approach stands the house of the Kuzuno Joki family, who acted for generations as representatives of Myōōin's lay parishioners, so the two Kuzuno households flank the way in.
The main house is a single-storey timber building under an Irimoya-zukuri roof of thatch, now sheathed in metal. From the road it reads as a farmhouse, but the Agency singles out its plan, with a tōri-niwa earth-floored passage, and its skilfully built, sturdy frame as without parallel in the area. The storehouse, a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building north of the main house, turns its gable end to the approach; a tall base of charred boards and white plaster above give it two clear bands of black and white.
Both buildings were registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency calls the main house the core of the temple-gate townscape and the storehouse a principal element of the approach. Each building has its own page covering its construction in detail.
Visiting the Kuzuno Joman Family Residence
The Kuzuno Joman Family Residence is not a public facility, and neither the Agency nor Otsu City lists any interior opening. Visitors see it from the approach and the main road; please stay off the property and keep clear of passing cars.
Public transport is thin. Kojak Bus route 51 (Katata–Katsuragawa Line, bound for Hosokawa) leaves from stop 3 at Katata Station on the JR Kosei Line, and from the Bomura stop the gate of Myōōin is only a few steps away. The bus runs only on Saturdays and holidays between the Vernal Equinox Day and the first Sunday of December, with one round trip a day: it leaves Katata at 8:50 a.m. and reaches Bomura at 9:28 a.m., and the return bus leaves Bomura at 9:51 a.m. Anyone wanting more time here should come by car on Route 367.
These times were checked against Kojak Bus stop timetables in October 2026 and may be revised, so confirm the current schedule before you set out.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs Database: Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Main House (Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002550
- Agency for Cultural Affairs Database: Kuzuno Joman Family Residence Storehouse (Japanese)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002551
- Otsu City, Katsuragawa District Walking Map (Japanese, PDF)
- https://www.city.otsu.lg.jp/material/files/group/126/katuragawa.pdf
- Kojak Bus Timetable: Katata Station, Stop 3 (Japanese)
- https://www.kojak.co.jp/timetable/Zikoku/00075_03/
- Kojak Bus Timetable: Bomura, Stop 1, toward Hosokawa (Japanese)
- https://www.kojak.co.jp/timetable/Zikoku/00442_01/
- Kojak Bus Timetable: Bomura, Stop 2, toward Katata Station (Japanese)
- https://www.kojak.co.jp/timetable/Zikoku/00442_02/
Last verified: 2026.10.15
Basic Information
| Name | Kuzuno Joman Family Residence |
|---|---|
| Location | 92 Katsuragawa Bomuracho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (2) |
| Coordinates | 35.24662, 135.86795 |
