Ogawa Family Residence (Oyama)

About the Ogawa Family Residence (Oyama)

The Ogawa Family Residence (小川家住宅, Ogawa-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant family's compound completed in 1912 beside National Route 4 in Otome 3-chome, Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture, and its five buildings, the main house, front gate, storehouse, rice storehouse and fertilizer storehouse, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 31, 2007. The Ogawa family had traded in fertilizer at Otome Kashi, a river port on the Omoi River, since the Edo period under the shop name Kurumaya, and they built this compound when they moved inland at the end of the Meiji era.

Since April 2009 the property has served as the Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art (小山市立車屋美術館). The rice storehouse was converted into a gallery for temporary exhibitions, while the main house and garden are open to visitors as the Ogawa Family Residence.

Several other cultural properties share the name Ogawa Family Residence, in Kyoto, in Ota (Gunma), in Nabari (Mie) and in Otsu (Shiga). They belong to unrelated families. This page covers the five buildings in Otome, Oyama.

From a River Port to the Highway

The Omoi River, which runs through the middle of Oyama, was a shipping route straight to Edo (Tokyo) from the Edo period into the Meiji era. Tochigi Prefecture describes Otome Kashi as a transfer point: goods brought downstream in small boats were reloaded there onto large takasebune river barges, and the landing also handled rice and building materials for repairs at Nikko Toshogu.

The Ogawa family ran a fertilizer wholesale business at this landing. According to Oyama City, as railways took over from river transport, the head of the family, Ogawa Zenpei, moved the shop and residence at the end of the Meiji era to the present site on the Nikko Kaido highway, now Route 4. Most of the buildings were new, but some are thought to have been brought from the riverside.

The storehouse dates from 1894 and was moved here in 1911. The rice storehouse followed in 1911, the main house in 1912 and the fertilizer storehouse in 1913, and the front gate is dated to around 1912. Oyama City notes that for every building except the gate the construction date and the master carpenter are known, and it singles out the main house as a well-preserved example of modern Japanese-style architecture inside and out.

Five Buildings on One Plot

The descriptions in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database place the five buildings of the Ogawa Family Residence as follows.

• The main house stands in the middle of the plot. It is a wooden building of two storeys with a single-storey section, with a footprint of 195 square meters.
• The front gate sits at the center of the north edge, facing the national road, in the middle of a plastered Tsuijibei wall that turns a corner and runs 10 meters.
• The storehouse stands in front of the main house. It was moved from Otome Kashi and covers 41 square meters.
• The rice storehouse runs along the prefectural road on the west edge. It is 15 Ken long, with a footprint of 198 square meters.
• The fertilizer storehouse stands behind the main house. It held the fertilizer that was the family's main stock in trade and covers 111 square meters.

All five were registered on July 31, 2007, and the registration was published on August 13. They carry the consecutive registration numbers 09-0165 to 09-0169 and share the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. With the house and gate on one side and three working storehouses on the other, the plot shows the whole establishment that a river-port wholesaler set up at the close of the Meiji era.

The grounds are planted with many trees that change through the seasons. Oyama City publishes a guide to the main species, and visitors may walk out into the garden to see them up close.

Visiting the Ogawa Family Residence

The Ogawa Family Residence is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from April to September and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from October to March, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. The gallery in the rice storehouse keeps 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. all year. Both are closed on Mondays and on the fourth Friday of each month (unless these fall on a public holiday), on the day after a public holiday (unless that day is a Saturday, Sunday or holiday), and from December 29 to January 3.

Admission to the Ogawa Family Residence is 100 yen for adults and 50 yen for high school and university students, and free for junior high school students and younger. Gallery admission depends on the exhibition. These details were checked on Oyama City's pages on October 4, 2026, and may change.

Because of the way the interior is built, wheelchairs, strollers and walking frames cannot be used inside the main house. Walking sticks are allowed, though pointed trekking poles may be refused. A ramp leads to the gallery, which is wheelchair accessible.

The nearest station is Mamada on the JR Utsunomiya Line, about a 5-minute walk from the west exit. Oyama City gives the journey from Ueno Station to Mamada as about 70 minutes on the Tohoku Main Line. Drivers will find the car park on Route 4, with room for 11 cars and 1 large bus.