Shimao Family Residence

A Merchant House at the Heart of the Tsuji Townscape

The Shimao Family Residence (島尾家住宅, Shimao-ke Jutaku) is a merchant house in the centre of Tsuji, Ikawa-cho, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, whose shop and main house and detached house, both of about 1877, were registered in 2017 as two Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered both for their contribution to the historic landscape.

The Agency describes the shop and main house as a townhouse contributing to the streetscape and the detached house as a key building of the townscape.

The Shop and Main House and the Detached House

According to the Agency, the shop and main house faces south onto the street, a two-storey gabled townhouse with a traditional tile roof, long and narrow from north to south under a gently pitched roof entered on the long side. The shop is at the front, with an earthen passage along the right to a workroom at the back; the upper floor is nearly square. It has a building area of 175 square metres.

The detached house behind it is a four-storey timber building with a distinctive tower-like exterior and cusped windows. The third floor has a ten-mat room and a seven-and-a-half-mat anteroom with verandas on the south and west; the fourth, a six-mat room ringed by boarded floor, is said to have been a games room. It has a building area of 127 square metres.

Two Buildings in the Townscape

The two-storey shop on the street and the four-storey pavilion rising behind it together give the Tsuji townscape its distinctive profile.

The Agency values the shop as a townhouse contributing to the streetscape and the pavilion as the key building of the townscape.

Visiting the Shimao Family Residence

It appears to be a private residence, and no official visitor information could be found. The exterior can be seen from the street.

Enquiries go to the Miyoshi City board of education.