A Taisho-Era House on a Daikanyama Hillside
The Former Asakura Family Residence (旧朝倉家住宅, Kyu-Asakura-ke Jutaku) in Sarugakucho, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, was built in 1919 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 10 December 2004. The designation number is 02455 and it covers two buildings, the main house and the storehouse, together with 5,419.81 square metres of land. A further designation covering the grounds followed in 2005. A ridge tablet, a garden gate roofed in cedar bark and an outbuilding of 42.96 square metres are registered as attached property.
The house sits five minutes on foot from Daikanyama Station, on ground that drops steeply southwest toward the Meguro River valley.
Tokyo lost most of its pre-1923 wooden architecture to the Great Kanto Earthquake and then to the air raids of 1945. Very little from the Taisho era remains anywhere near the centre of the city. This house is one of the exceptions, and the reason people who study Japanese domestic architecture keep coming back to it. In the 1923 earthquake the storehouse was damaged; the main house, by family account, did not lose a single roof tile.
The Asakura and the Building Campaign
The Asakura traced their line to retainers of the Takeda clan of Kai Province, whose descendants are said to have returned to farming and settled in Shibuya. By the Edo period they were substantial local landowners, and from the late Edo into the early Meiji years they ran a rice-hulling business using a waterwheel on the nearby Mita irrigation channel, reportedly the largest on that watercourse. The business grew into rice dealing and then into landholding on a large scale.
The house was commissioned by Asakura Torajiro, who served as speaker of the Tokyo prefectural assembly and of the Shibuya ward assembly. The master carpenter was Akimoto Masataro, a craftsman regularly employed by the family. A ridge tablet dated 16 March 1919 was placed in a box and nailed to the ridge beam of the two-storeyed part of the main house; it is included in the designation as attached property. The family used the house as its principal residence until 1947.
After the war it was sold to meet inheritance tax and served for a time as a conference facility for the Economic Planning Agency. When the cabinet decided in 2002 to sell it, the former owners and the architect Maki Fumihiko, who designed the neighbouring Hillside Terrace, led a preservation campaign. Designation followed in 2004. The building now belongs to the national government through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Shibuya Ward manages it and opens it to the public.
Why Two Buildings Are Registered Together
The criterion applied was the fifth: notable for the distinctiveness of its school or its regional character. What earned the listing was the way a single house switches architectural language according to what each room is for. A formal reception suite, inward-facing family rooms, a tearoom. The character of each differs, yet nothing about the whole falls apart. A domestic complex with that range of functions is important evidence for how Japanese-style houses developed in the modern period.
The main house is timber-framed, partly two-storeyed, with a floor area of 573.76 square metres. A north-south single-storey wing joins the front east side of the main east-west block. The roof is pantiled with a pronounced upward sweep toward the eaves, and the walls are mainly weatherboarded with sections in plaster.
Only the storehouse departs from this. Its frame is timber, but the outer walls are reinforced concrete finished in washed mortar, a forward-looking choice for a domestic outbuilding around 1919. Iron doors on double leaves hang at the openings, and a fitted cupboard stands on the east side of the upper floor. A covered forechamber with a pent roof on the east connects directly to the small room north of the tearoom.
The two count as one item because the contrast between them is part of a single estate. The main house alone is a well-made Taisho residence; the storehouse alone is a small concrete shed. That the storehouse broke in the earthquake while the main house did not can only be checked because both survive. The Agency for Cultural Affairs also notes that buildings and garden are preserved as a unit, and that this was a house built on the rapidly urbanising fringe just as Tokyo was becoming a modern city. From Sarugakucho in 1919 you could still see farmland.
From the Entrance to the Cedar Room
The entrance projects at the centre of the east face. Inside, a twelve-and-a-half mat reception room ringed by verandas lies to the left and a Western room to the right. Within a few steps it is clear that the house keeps both registers available. The Western room is the only one in the house, used for everyday callers and paperwork, and it is finished with care: a coved coffered ceiling, carved wooden brackets for a chandelier, sliding doors made from single boards.
Upstairs the formality rises a step. A fifteen-mat principal room and a twelve-and-a-half-mat anteroom stand side by side, both with high coffered ceilings. Three courses of horizontal rails run around the walls, and the finish timber for columns and rails is good cypress. The roof structure is a conventional Japanese truss, but the beam frame carries diagonal bracing. That is not decoration; it is a builder's judgement left visible.
Further in lies the suite known as the cedar room, and here the air changes. The finish timber shifts from cypress to cedar, including huge single boards of Yakushima cedar, worked with the uzukuri technique that raises the grain so that the surface reads by touch as well as by eye. Alcove and shelving arrangements loosen considerably, and the ceilings of the two innermost rooms use long, wide cedar boards laid with recessed joints. It feels light. It was meant to.
The tearoom has a hearth cut at its centre, and the small room to its north opens a large circular window. Painted panels in a range of techniques decorate the sliding doors, the small doors of the cupboards and the cedar doors throughout, so it is worth pausing at each threshold when moving between rooms.
The garden works with the slope rather than against it. Stones and large stone lanterns line a path that circles the hillside through a wood dominated by maples. Azaleas are the spring display, maples the autumn one. The footing is uneven in places, so wear shoes you can walk in.
Practical Notes
Opening hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., or to 4:30 p.m. from November to February, with last admission thirty minutes before closing. The house closes on Mondays, or the following weekday when a Monday is a public holiday, and from 29 December to 3 January.
Admission is 500 yen for adults, 200 yen for Shibuya residents and 50 yen for primary and junior high school students, with annual passes at 2,000, 800 and 200 yen. Groups of ten or more pay 400 yen for adults and 40 yen for students. Shibuya residents aged sixty and over, visitors with disabilities and one accompanying person enter free. Proof of address is required for the resident rate.
Shoes come off at the entrance. To protect the building, bare feet are not permitted and slippers are not used, so bring socks. Some rooms are closed for conservation. Personal photography is allowed; commercial shooting is restricted and requires separate arrangement.
Access is a five-minute walk from Daikanyama Station on the Tokyu Toyoko Line, five minutes from the Daikanyama stop on the Hachiko bus, or three minutes from the Hillside Terrace stop on the Tokyu Transse bus. The entrance faces the Daikanyama police box; there is no way in from the Hillside Terrace side. There is no car park and visitors cannot arrive by car. As a designated property, step-free access is limited.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Tokyo
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Asakura Family Residence
- [ Tokyo Skytree Asakusa & teamLab Experiences ]
Q&A
- When was the Former Asakura Family Residence built and designated?
- It was built in 1919, with a ridge tablet dated 16 March of that year. Designation as an Important Cultural Property came on 10 December 2004 under number 02455, covering the main house, the storehouse and 5,419.81 square metres of land. The grounds received a further designation in 2005.
- Why was the Former Asakura Family Residence designated?
- Under the fifth criterion, notable for the distinctiveness of its school or regional character. The house switches architectural language between the formal reception suite, the family rooms and the tearoom without the whole becoming incoherent. Almost no large Japanese-style house from before the 1923 earthquake survives near central Tokyo.
- How do the main house and storehouse of the Former Asakura Family Residence differ?
- The main house is timber-framed, partly two-storeyed, pantiled, with a floor area of 573.76 square metres and mainly weatherboarded walls. The storehouse has a timber frame but reinforced concrete outer walls finished in washed mortar, a forward-looking choice for around 1919. In the 1923 earthquake the storehouse was damaged while the main house was not.
- What are the opening hours and admission for the Former Asakura Family Residence?
- Open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., to 4:30 p.m. from November to February, with last admission thirty minutes before closing. Closed Mondays and from 29 December to 3 January. Admission is 500 yen for adults, 200 yen for Shibuya residents and 50 yen for school students; groups of ten or more pay 400 and 40 yen.
- What should visitors to the Former Asakura Family Residence know in advance?
- Shoes come off at the entrance, bare feet are not permitted and slippers are not used, so bring socks. Some rooms are closed for conservation. Personal photography is fine; commercial shooting needs separate arrangement. There is no car park and no entry from the Hillside Terrace side.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Asakura Family Residence (旧朝倉家住宅) |
|---|---|
| Location | 29-20 Sarugakucho, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structure), designation no. 02455, criterion 5 (distinctiveness of school or regional character) |
| Year Designated | 10 December 2004; grounds designated separately in 2005 |
| Quantity | 2 buildings (main house 1, storehouse 1) and 5,419.81 sq m of land; ridge tablet, garden gate and outbuilding as attached property |
| Dimensions | Main house: timber frame, partly two storeys, pantile roof, 573.76 sq m. Storehouse: reinforced concrete and timber, two storeys, pantile roof with a pent roof on the east, 29.03 sq m. Built 1919 |
| Owner | National government (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology); managed by Shibuya Ward |
| Public Access | Open to the public, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (to 4:30 p.m. November to February; last admission 30 minutes before closing). Closed Mondays and 29 December to 3 January. Adults 500 yen, Shibuya residents 200 yen, school students 50 yen |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Former Asakura Family Residence (main house)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/00003889
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Former Asakura Family Residence (storehouse)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/00003890
- Cultural Heritage Online: Former Asakura Family Residence
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/188036
- Shibuya Ward: Former Asakura Family Residence, Important Cultural Property
- https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/shisetsu/bunka-shisetsu/asakura/asakura_00004.html
Last verified: 2026.08.31
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Former Asakura Family Residence Main house 0.00 km
- Former Asakura Family Residence storehouse 0.02 km