A Townhouse Wearing a Western Face
The Takasaki Family Residence Main House, better known as the former Kawaramachi Post Office (高﨑家住宅主屋（旧川原町郵便局舎）, Takasaki-ke Jutaku Shuoku, also written 高崎家住宅主屋), stands at Kawara 2-chome in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture; its present street front dates from 1934 and the building was entered on Japan's Register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 28 October 2011.
Walk south from Hikone Castle into the old merchant quarter and the street narrows to about two ken, roughly 3.6 metres, curving in a slow S. Wooden lattice fronts and plastered walls line both sides. Then one facade breaks rank: glazed tile across the ground floor, a mortar band above it shaped like a classical cornice, and a small pediment over the doorway.
The interesting part is the seam. Look at the frontage as a whole and it splits in two. The left portion is the 1934 post office face. The right portion is the older townhouse, left as it was, with its gabled roof and its eaves-side entrance. Both belong to the same building. The conversion stopped halfway across the front, and nobody ever went back to finish the job.
Twenty-Four Months as a Post Office
The house behind the facade is considerably older than 1934. Hikone City dates the original construction to the late Edo period and records that the Takasaki family ran a hyoguya here, a workshop mounting scrolls and screens. Their documents survive as the Takasaki Family Papers, held at the Hikone Castle Museum.
In 1934 the front of the townhouse was rebuilt in Western dress for use as a post office, and a second-floor room with unusually high ceilings was added above. According to research published by the Smith Meeting, a local heritage group, the Kawaramachi post office opened in 1925 and closed in 1936. If those dates are right, the building served its postal function in this form for barely two years before the counter shut for good. The facade outlasted the institution it was built for by ninety years.
How the Plan Works
Inside, the arrangement follows the standard deep-lot logic of the Japanese merchant house: a toriniwa, the earth-floored service passage running front to back, with rooms ranged beside it in two files of three, six rooms in all. The passage is two ken wide. Alongside it sit three narrow rooms one ken across, too shallow for comfortable living and probably used as anterooms or corridors, then three rooms of two ken. Hikone City notes that this layout recurs through the Kawaramachi and Serimachi neighbourhoods and along the post towns of the Nakasendo highway.
One detail rewards a slow look. The plot widens toward the rear, a trapezoid rather than a rectangle. Usually a carpenter absorbs that distortion in the toriniwa and keeps the rooms square. Here he pushed it into the storage instead. The tatami rooms are true right angles on both floors, and the skew is taken up by the board floors, closets, Buddhist altar recesses and alcoves, which grow shallower the closer they sit to the street.
The register entry gives the body of the building as 12 metres along the ridge by 7.7 metres in depth, with a recorded building area of 84 square metres, and describes the structure as timber, single-storey with a partial second floor, tiled throughout.
Seeing It: The Street Is the Exhibit
The interior is closed. Hikone City and the local tourism association both state plainly that only the exterior can be viewed, and the house remains in private hands, so there is no entrance, no ticket and no interior tour. Treat the street frontage as the whole of the visit and it becomes a satisfying one, because the facade is the point.
Photography from the public street is unrestricted as far as any published notice goes. People live along this road, so keep tripods out of the way and lenses off windows.
Access is easy compared with most registered properties in rural Shiga. JR Hikone Station lies about 1.2 kilometres north, a fifteen-minute walk. Hikone Serikawa Station on the Ohmi Railway is closer still, roughly 600 metres away, around eight minutes on foot. The building is often referred to locally as Teishinsha, a name derived from the old Ministry of Communications.
The District Around It
In July 2016 the Kawaramachi Serimachi district was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the national designation covering historic townscapes. The area runs about 780 metres along the winding street and covers roughly five hectares, classified as a merchant town, with 89 traditional buildings and three traditional structures counted within it. Kawaramachi itself was laid out before 1618, when the Hikone castle town took shape and the course of the Serikawa river was diverted to make room for it.
Two doors down the street stands the Usui Barbershop of 1936, also on the national register. A short walk brings you to the Akiguchi Family Residence Western Wing in Serimachi and to the former Shiga Chuo Shinkin Bank Ginza branch. Half a day covers the lot, and the walk itself explains why the district was designated.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Takasaki Family Residence, the former Kawaramachi Post Office?
- No. Hikone City and the Hikone Tourism Association both state that only the exterior may be viewed and the interior is closed to the public. The building remains in private ownership, so there is no admission, no opening hours and no interior tour. The street facade can be seen freely at any time.
- How do I get to the former Kawaramachi Post Office in Hikone?
- From JR Hikone Station it is about 1.2 kilometres south, roughly a fifteen-minute walk. Hikone Serikawa Station on the Ohmi Railway is nearer, around 600 metres or eight minutes on foot. The street is narrow and residential, so arriving by car is discouraged; use the city's visitor car parks near the castle.
- Why does the Takasaki Family Residence have a Western-style front?
- The house dates from the late Edo period, and in 1934 its street front was rebuilt in Western dress when the building was converted for use as a post office. Glazed tile covers the ground floor, a mortar band above it imitates a classical cornice, and a pediment marks the entrance. Only the left portion was altered; the original townhouse front survives on the right.
- How long did the Kawaramachi post office actually operate?
- Research published by the local heritage group Smith Meeting gives the post office as opening in 1925 and closing in 1936. Since the Western frontage was built in 1934, the building is said to have served in this form for only about two years.
- What is unusual about the floor plan of the Takasaki Family Residence?
- The plot is a trapezoid that widens toward the rear. Rather than correcting the skew in the earth-floored toriniwa passage, as carpenters normally did, the builder absorbed it in the storage spaces. Closets, board floors, altar recesses and alcoves grow shallower toward the street while the tatami rooms stay perfectly square.
- Is the former Kawaramachi Post Office inside a preservation district?
- Yes. The Kawaramachi Serimachi district of Hikone was selected in July 2016 as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. It covers about five hectares along 780 metres of street, is classified as a merchant town, and contains 89 traditional buildings.
Basic Information
| Name | Takasaki Family Residence Main House, former Kawaramachi Post Office (高﨑家住宅主屋（旧川原町郵便局舎）) |
|---|---|
| Location | 2-104 Kawara, Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 25-0302 |
| Year Designated | 28 October 2011 (registration and public notice on the same date) |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Timber, single-storey with partial second floor, tiled roof; building area 84 sq m; body 12 m by 7.7 m |
| Owner | Private (no owner recorded in the national database) |
| Public Access | Exterior only; interior closed to the public. Within the Kawaramachi Serimachi preservation district |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Takasaki Family Residence Main House (former Kawaramachi Post Office)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00009034
- Hikone City: Takasaki Family Residence Main House (former Kawaramachi Post Office)
- https://www.city.hikone.lg.jp/kakuka/kanko_bunka/8/2_2/4650.html
- Hikone City: the Kawaramachi Serimachi Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://www.city.hikone.lg.jp/kakuka/kanko_bunka/8/5/2/4692.html
- Hikone Tourism Association: former Kawaramachi Post Office (Teishinsha)
- https://www.hikoneshi.com/sightseeing/article/teishinsha
- Smith Meeting (NPO): Teishinsha, former Kawaramachi Post Office
- https://smith-meeting.com/heritage/article/teishinsha
Last verified: 2026.08.11