The Shojukan Main House
Shojukan Main House is a dwelling of 1814 in Tatsutachō, Gokashō, Higashiōmi City, Shiga Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 4 February 2021. It is a single-storey timber building with a Kayabuki thatched roof, currently under a temporary copper covering, and a building area of 114 square metres. It is the anchor of the Matsui Kyūemon family estate.
A Doma earth floor runs north to south along the western side. East of it lie four rooms in the kuichigai arrangement, in which the dividing posts are deliberately offset so that the rooms do not line up into a clean grid. Shojukan Main House uses that plan at unusual scale: each of the four rooms is large.
What the Roof Frame Records
The Agency for Cultural Affairs register singles out the attic. The roof frame at Shojukan Main House is of the paired-rafter type, two members leaning together to carry the ridge, which is common enough in thatched farmhouses across Japan. What the register calls rare is the stiffening: two tiers of tie-beams run along the ridge direction, one above the other.
A tie-beam passes through the posts and locks the frame against racking. Thatch is heavy, and widening the rooms widens the span the frame has to cross. Read that way, the doubled tie-beams at Shojukan Main House are the price paid upstairs for the generous rooms below.
The building was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The register describes it as a representative example of the farmhouse-type main residence of an Ōmi merchant, and notes that the garden laid out by Katsumoto Donketsu survives as one piece with the building. Merchants from Gokashō traded in distant provinces and kept a family seat at home that looked like a farm, and the plan of Shojukan Main House states that habit plainly.
What to Look For
Start with the roof. The copper sheeting hides the cut faces of the thatch, but the pitch and the ridge height are unchanged. Even after the 2015 repair, a single-storey footprint of 114 square metres reads as very large once the storehouses around it give you a scale.
Then step onto the earth floor. Running the full depth of the west side, it continues into the mizuya beyond, making it the longest uninterrupted space inside Shojukan Main House. Turn back toward the rooms from the kitchen end and the step up in floor level is obvious.
Once you are on the tatami, look out. The Shojukan garden, a Registered Monument in its own right, was composed to be seen from these rooms: stepping stones swing around a rise in the near ground and run back to a low mound. Seated, your eye drops, and the line of stones disappears midway before picking up again. Standing changes the order in which the garden arrives.
Visiting
Shojukan Main House is the centrepiece of the Merchant Museum, Kyōrinbō Betsuin, and visitors may go up into it while the museum is open. Openings are short and seasonal: the Kyōrinbō website gives weekends and public holidays from 14 November to 6 December for autumn 2026. Admission is 500 yen for adults and 300 yen for elementary and junior high school students.
Photography is permitted. For an exterior shot, the position just inside the front gate catches the roof pitch best; for the garden, shoot from the tatami side. Directions to the estate and the current opening conditions are set out on the Shojukan page.
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Q&A
- When was Shojukan Main House built?
- In 1814. It underwent a repair campaign in 2015.
- Can you go inside Shojukan Main House?
- Yes, during the museum's opening season. Openings are limited to weekends and public holidays in spring and autumn, so check the dates first.
- Is the roof of Shojukan Main House thatched?
- It is, though a temporary copper covering sits over the thatch at present. The Agency for Cultural Affairs record lists it as thatch under provisional copper sheeting.
- What is the kuichigai four-room plan at Shojukan Main House?
- It is a four-room layout in which the dividing post lines are offset rather than forming a regular grid. Shojukan Main House combines it with an earth floor along the west side, and its individual rooms are unusually large.
- Is photography allowed at Shojukan Main House?
- Yes. Several spots on the estate, including the heart-shaped inome study window, draw visitors who come specifically to photograph them.
Basic Information
| Name | Shojukan Main House |
|---|---|
| Location | 396-1 Motoyashiki, Tatsutacho, Gokasho, Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered 4 February 2021 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 114 square metres |
| Owner | Private (not disclosed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Open in limited spring and autumn seasons (Merchant Museum, Kyorinbo Betsuin) |
References
- National Designated Cultural Properties Database: Shojukan Main House (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013569
- Cultural Heritage Online: Shojukan Garden (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/520614
- Merchant Museum, Kyorinbo Betsuin (official temple website)
- https://kyourinbo.jimdofree.com/home/kyorinbo-betsuin-merchant-museum/
Last verified: 2026.09.13
