Hiraoka Family Residence

About the Hiraoka Family Residence

The Hiraoka Family Residence (平岡家住宅, Hiraoka-ke Jūtaku) is a farmhouse estate at 18 Imochi, Osato, Kaiyo-cho, Kaifu-gun, Tokushima Prefecture, centered on a main house built in 1872, whose five structures were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2022. The five are the main house, the kitchen, the barn, the west wall and the south wall. They carry consecutive registration numbers, 36-0217 to 36-0221, and were all registered on June 29, 2022, as Registered Tangible Cultural Property structures.

The estate lies in the Osato district on the north bank of the Kaifu River, in the far south of Tokushima Prefecture. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the area as a settlement in the castle town of Tomo Castle, and notes that across the street on the west side of the property lay a quarter of samurai houses. A farming household, in other words, lived one street away from the local warrior class.

What the Agency singled out was completeness: a main house typical of the region's pre-modern farmhouses, with the rest of the homestead still standing around it. The main house was registered as a model of form; the kitchen, barn and two walls for their contribution to the historic landscape.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The heart of the Hiraoka Family Residence is the main house, which faces south. Its east side was once a broad earth-floored work area, its west side given over to the raised living rooms, and the best room at the west end opens onto a garden. That garden is enclosed by the west wall, a stone wall that runs along the street and then turns in an L toward the house.

Across the front of the main house runs the south wall, a plastered earthen wall that separates the house from a path inside the property. The kitchen block is attached to the back, on the north, and the two-story barn stands to the east of the main house, facing west. Stone wall to the street, earthen wall across the front, kitchen behind, work building to the side: the pieces of a farm household are all still in place.

The buildings span about 80 years. The main house dates from 1872, the west wall from the early Meiji era (1868 to 1882), the kitchen and south wall from the early Showa era (1926 to 1945), and the barn from 1954. On the dates alone, the house and the stone wall came first, and the kitchen, south wall and barn were added in the 20th century.

Each structure's construction and details are covered on its own page.

The Hiraoka Family Residence Today

The Hiraoka Family Residence is still in use as a place for local activities. The Tokushima Shimbun reported that on Setsubun, February 3, 2024, a local general incorporated association that runs a drop-in space for children held a bean-throwing event at the house, attended by about 30 children aged 3 to 12.

Events like this are not public openings, and no visitor facility is advertised at present.

Visiting the Hiraoka Family Residence

The Hiraoka Family Residence is not operated as a public attraction, and the national database does not list an owner. Assume the interiors cannot be visited and view the estate from outside. Because the west wall runs along the street, its stonework is the part of the property you can see best. There is no official guidance on photography; since this is a private property that is also used for community activities, please stay off the grounds.

The nearest station is Awa-Kainan, the terminus of the JR Mugi Line and the transfer point for the Asa Seaside Railway's DMV, a vehicle that runs on both rails and roads. The Hiraoka Family Residence is about 500 meters east of the station as the crow flies. According to the Asa Seaside Railway, Awa-Kainan is unstaffed for both the JR and DMV services, and National Route 55 passes right by it.