Hirano Family Residence

A Taisho-Era Household by Yasuoka Katsuya

The Hirano Family Residence (平野家住宅, Hirano-ke Jūtaku) is a private house in Nishikata, Bunkyo City, Tokyo, built between 1921 and about 1922, and its six structures were listed together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 September 1998.

Its architect, Yasuoka Katsuya (保岡勝也, 1877-1942), is counted by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs among the country's earliest specialist house designers. He studied architecture at Tokyo Imperial University, joined the Marunouchi architectural office of the Mitsubishi company and designed part of the red-brick business quarter at Marunouchi. After going independent at 35 he took on banks and shops, but also a steady run of private houses and gardens, and wrote about how homes should be planned.

According to the architectural historian Fujimori Terunobu, the Hirano Family Residence was built for Asada Komanosuke, the first president of the publishing house Chuokoron-sha. Asada lived in the two-storey Japanese wing and used the small Western-style block as an office and reception room. Some writers still call it the former Asada Komanosuke house, but the official listing uses the Hirano name.

Six Listings, One Set of Reasons

All six parts of the Hirano Family Residence entered the register on the same day, in the eleventh round of listings, under the consecutive numbers 13-0021 (main house) through 13-0026 (tea room gate). The official notice followed on 25 September. Every one was listed under the criterion for buildings that set a standard of design.

Read the Agency's six short descriptions side by side and a pattern emerges. For the main house and the Western-style block, what counts is that the original joinery and light fittings survive. For the storehouse it is the colour of the brick and the care taken over the joints; for the tea room, Yasuoka's own command of tea architecture; for the two gates, small, deliberate touches in brick and bamboo. In each case the evidence is an architect's hand reaching into every corner of a household.

The date matters as well. The storehouse entry calls it a valuable residential storehouse from before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Here a complete household, gate, house, annex, tea room and store, survives from the year before that disaster reshaped Tokyo.

How the Grounds Are Laid Out

A brick gate and wall separate the Hirano Family Residence from the lane. Step through the gate, following the Agency's description, and the Western-style house stands on your right, the guest wing of the main house on your left, with the main entrance straight ahead. The gate's northern wing wall is butted directly against the Western-style house, so gate and annex read as one front.

Roughly in the middle of the plot, the tea room faces the guest wing. Guests once reached it through a separate gate at the southern end of the wall and along a Roji garden path. That entrance is now a garage, and the old tea room gate has been moved to a spot between the garage and the garden. At the far western edge of the property stands a brick storehouse with a basement.

Japanese rooms and a Western block, a tea room and a store: all sit inside a single wall, and each building carries its own part of the household's life, family living, business and receiving guests, tea, and safekeeping. The Hirano Family Residence packs a full Taisho-era household onto one city lot.

Where the Sources Disagree

Dates for the Hirano Family Residence vary a little by source. The Agency's register gives 1921 for the main house, 1922 for the Western-style house and about 1922 for the other four structures, and Bunkyo City's list repeats those dates. Fujimori's essay dates the whole house to 1922 in its text, while the project summary on the same page gives 1921 as the completion year.

The Western-style house is also labelled two ways. The Agency calls it a white-tiled building in the half-timber manner; Fujimori calls it Secession style. The two readings focus on different aspects of the design. This page and the pages for each building follow the Agency's register for dates and construction.

Visiting and Access

The Hirano Family Residence is privately owned and not open to the public. Neither the Agency nor Bunkyo City publishes any visiting arrangements, and as of September 2026 no open days or tours had been announced.

From the lane you can see the brick gate and wall, the face of the Western-style house beside the gate, and part of the main house roof above the wall. The tea room, the tea room gate and the storehouse lie deeper in the grounds and are unlikely to be visible from outside. This is a quiet residential street: keep stops short, do not block the gate, and do not point cameras at residents or into the house.

The nearest station is Todai-mae on the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line, about 10 minutes away on foot. The house is in the residential district just west of the University of Tokyo's Hongo campus.