Morimoto Family Residence

A Village Headman's Estate in Katsuura

The Morimoto Family Residence (森本家住宅, Morimoto-ke Jūtaku) is a village headman's estate in the Sakamoto district of Katsuura Town, Tokushima Prefecture, whose six buildings, the oldest a storehouse built in 1809, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 26 March 2015.

Sakamoto is the most remote district of Katsuura, a small hill town southwest of Tokushima City. The main house faces south across a narrow valley cut by a tributary stream, and the other five buildings gather around it: two earthen storehouses, a barn, a guest annex and a roofed gate. They carry consecutive registration numbers, 36-0119 through 36-0124, and were the first buildings in Katsuura to enter the national register.

Roughly a century separates the oldest building here from the youngest. The Old Storehouse dates to 1809, the thatched main house to the late Edo period (1830–1868), and the barn to the Meiji era (1868–1912). The New Storehouse followed in 1907, while the annex and gate belong to the late Meiji years (1898–1912), when the main house was also remodelled. Read in that order, the Morimoto Family Residence shows an Edo headman's compound being updated by his Meiji descendants.

The Morimoto Family

According to Katsuura Town, the family traces its founder to the Genroku era (1688–1704) and served as shōya, hereditary village headmen, from the Bunka era (1804–1818). The standing continued after the Meiji Restoration: the head of the house served as mayor of Tanano Village in 1906 and again in 1918.

A headman's household typically gathered the village tax rice and kept its records, so storage mattered as much as living space. The Old Storehouse, built within the Bunka years, is described by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as preserving the layout of an early modern headman's estate.

The six buildings were not all registered on the same grounds. The annex was listed as a model of form and design, the only one of the group. The other five were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape, valued less as individual works than as the pieces that make up the Morimoto Family Residence as a whole.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

The national database records where each building stands, and together those notes describe the compound. The thatched main house sits at the centre facing south. Behind it, to the north, the two storehouses stand side by side, the Old Storehouse to the west and the New Storehouse to the east, both with their doors turned toward the house.

Southwest of the main house, the 2-storey barn faces east and closes off the front yard. The annex also lies southwest of the house, with a veranda on three sides. The front gate, a Yakuimon type, stands on the path south of the annex; its northern post meets the annex's board fence and its southern side runs into a stone wall.

Put those notes side by side and a pattern appears: the storehouses are tucked behind the main house, while the barn, the annex and the gate all lie to its southwest, on the side where the estate is entered. The reception rooms and the gate seem to have been set toward the approach, with the family's stores kept further back.

Visiting the Morimoto Family Residence

The Morimoto Family Residence is a private home. Neither the national database nor Katsuura Town lists public opening days or a way to arrange a visit, so treat the grounds and interiors as closed. Do not pass through the gate, and if you take photographs, be considerate of the residents and anyone coming and going.

Sakamoto is a hill settlement at the far end of the town. Bus routes, timetables and visitor parking could not be confirmed, so contact the Katsuura Town Board of Education (0885-42-2515, Japanese) before making the trip, and avoid parking on the lane in front of the house.