Iizuka Family Residence: The Shintaku Main House
On a long, narrow plot in the Bato district of Nakagawa, in northeastern Tochigi Prefecture, a single-story house with a partial upper floor faces south toward the street. This is the main house of the Iizuka family's shintaku, literally the "new residence," raised around 1907 next to the older family home. The Iizuka are remembered locally as a household of standing who served as senior village headmen during the Edo period, and the new residence was built for a branch of that family as their fortunes grew in the Meiji era.
The house occupies the southern half of the site and turns its broad front to the south. A wide entrance hall opens into a formal reception room finished in tatami, the kind of space a family of consequence used to receive guests. Behind these public rooms lie the more private areas: an everyday sitting room and an inner reception room set deeper in the plan, away from the eyes of visitors. The upper floor, tucked under the roof, once served as a room for household staff.
Why It Was Registered
The main house became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in September 2003, one of a group of Iizuka structures listed together that year. The building was recognized under the criterion for works that stand as a model of their type. What earns it that status is not lavish decoration but the clarity of its planning. The rooms are laid out with an orderly logic, and the formal reception rooms carry a refinement that reads as distinctly modern for a country house of the period.
The roof is a yosemune hipped form covered in sangawara pantiles, and the footprint measures about 170 square meters. Seen alongside the Edo-period gate that survives at the older residence nearby, the house shows how a provincial family updated its idea of a proper home as the twentieth century began, keeping the vocabulary of the tatami reception room while arranging it with a new sense of order.
What to Notice on a Visit
The pleasure of the building lies in reading its plan. Move from the wide entrance through the front reception room and you can feel the house shift in register, from spaces meant to impress to the quieter inner rooms where the family actually lived. The joinery and the proportions of the tatami rooms reward slow looking.
One point of context matters here. The Iizuka residence sits within the old commercial street of Bato, and its several buildings now form a lodging called Iizuka-tei, operated on behalf of the town. The new residence main house is used as guest accommodation rather than kept as a museum, so the fullest way to experience the interior is to stay. From the street, the low front and the tiled roof can be appreciated as part of the townscape.
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Q&A
- What does "shintaku" mean, and how is it different from the main residence?
- Shintaku means "new residence." It was built in the Meiji era for a branch of the Iizuka family, next to and west of the older hontaku, or main residence, which dates from the late Edo period. The two stood on adjoining plots and together covered roughly 2,000 square meters.
- When was the main house built?
- Around 1907 (Meiji 40), according to the national cultural property register. It was registered as a cultural property in 2003.
- Can I go inside?
- The building is part of the Iizuka-tei lodging and is used as a guest room, so interior access is generally for those staying overnight. The exterior can be seen from the surrounding streets of the Bato district.
- What else is nearby?
- The Bato Hiroshige Museum of Art, which holds works by the Edo-period print master Utagawa Hiroshige, is a short trip away, as are the hot springs of the Bato area and the scenic Komasa district.
Basic Information
| Name | Iizuka Family Residence, Shintaku Main House (Iizuka-ke Jutaku Shintaku Shuoku) |
|---|---|
| Location | 360 Minamimachi, Bato, Nakagawa, Nasu District, Tochigi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 19 September 2003; gazetted 17 October 2003) |
| Registration criterion | A model of its type in form and design |
| Date of construction | Around 1907 (Meiji 40) |
| Count and scale | 1 building; timber, single-story with partial second floor, hipped roof with pantiles, building area about 170 sq m; includes the middle-gate and front-garden wickets |
| Owner | Nakagawa Town |
| Access status | Operated as the Iizuka-tei lodging (managed by Ohtawara Tourism); the main house is used as guest accommodation. Exteriors visible from the Bato townscape. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Iizuka Family Residence, Shintaku Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003507
- Nakagawa Town — Nationally Designated Cultural Properties: Iizuka Family Residence
- https://www.town.tochigi-nakagawa.lg.jp/22kankou/chizu/kuni/2009-1218-1422-52.html
- Iizuka-tei, Registered Tangible Cultural Property Hotel (official site)
- https://iizukatei.ohtawaragt.co.jp/
Last verified: 2026.07.02