A Silk Farmhouse Left Standing in a New Town
Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya (川井家住宅主屋, also written Kawai-ke Jūtaku Omoya, "main house of the Kawai Residence") is a large single-storey thatched farmhouse of about 1885 at Tsurumaki, Tama City, in western Tokyo, added to Japan's national register of tangible cultural properties on 3 April 2020. It was the first building in Tama City to enter the register, together with the family's storehouse on the same grounds.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the year as Meiji 18, that is 1885, with an extension built around 1955 and repairs carried out in 1982. The frame is timber, one storey, with a building area of 199 square metres. The roof is thatch, currently under a provisional covering of sheet metal, a common holding measure when a thatched roof awaits full re-thatching.
Nearly everything around it is younger by eighty years. Tama New Town, the largest planned housing development ever undertaken in Japan, began accepting residents in 1971 and reshaped these hills into apartment blocks, pedestrian decks and landscaped parks. The Kawai house stayed where it had always been. The Agency's assessment says so directly: a valuable large sericulture farmhouse surviving in a part of the Tama region that urbanised heavily.
Reading the Building
Start with the height. The Agency's description calls this an irimoya thatched house of unusual stance, meaning the walls rise higher than a farmhouse of this footprint normally requires. That extra height is not display. It is production space.
Inside the roof, above the living quarters, sit two tiers of sanshitsu, rooms for raising silkworms. Silk was the cash crop of Meiji Japan, and farmhouses across the Kanto and Chubu regions were rebuilt or heightened to accommodate it. Silkworms need warmth, ventilation and a great deal of horizontal surface for the trays of mulberry leaves. A farmhouse that added two full levels of rearing floor inside its roof was, in effect, a small factory with a family living underneath.
The ground plan divides east and west. The western half is the raised-floor living section. Its reception rooms make heavy use of sashi-kamoi, a deep timber lintel set above the openings that carries load in its own right, which allowed the carpenter to leave out intermediate pillars and open the rooms up. Anyone who has stood in a farmhouse where a beam of that depth spans a whole room understands the effect: the ceiling reads as heavier and the floor as wider than the building's size suggests.
The eastern half is doma, the earthen-floored working area, and here it is split into two parts with two separate doorways opening on the south side. Two doors into one work floor is not standard. The likeliest reading is that the two halves served different functions and different traffic, though the Agency's record does not spell out which, and no published survey consulted for this article settles the question.
The family were nanushi, village headmen under the Edo-period administrative system, responsible for tax collection, record-keeping and local order. That status explains a house of this size and a reception suite of this quality in what was otherwise a farming settlement.
Visiting: What Is Open and What Is Not
The house sits beside Tsurumaki Nishi Park at 2-22-2 Tsurumaki, Tama City. The Agency's record describes it as adjacent to the park; Tama City, which is listed in the same record as the owner, now describes the buildings as lying within the park grounds. That shift reflects a transfer of land, and it is one of the points a visitor should check locally rather than assume.
The interior is not open on a regular basis. Tama City has been preparing a preservation and utilisation plan for the main house and the storehouse, with public consultation held in autumn 2025, so opening arrangements may change. Check the city's cultural properties pages before travelling if interior access matters to you.
What is freely accessible is the park, and from it three protected things stand in one view. The main house with its high thatched roof. The storehouse to its southeast, registered on the same day: two storeys of dozō plaster construction, 24 square metres, a gabled metal roof carried on a separate frame above the walls, and a base finished in polished artificial stone. And a weeping cherry that Tama City has designated a natural monument, reckoned at some two hundred years old, roughly 18 metres tall with a crown spreading about 20 metres. The Kawai family gave the tree and the land around it to the city in 2011.
Late March into early April is the obvious time to come. The cherry is among the largest of its kind in Tokyo, and a thatched roof behind falling blossom is a composition that no other registered property in the metropolis can offer. Off season, the house reads more clearly: bare branches let you see the whole roof plane and judge the height of the walls.
Karakida Station on the Odakyu Tama Line is about five minutes on foot. From Tama Center Station, buses leave from stop 11 and the Tsurumaki Nishi Koen stop is a minute's walk from the park. Photography from the park is unproblematic; the buildings are municipal property in a public space.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya?
- Not on a regular basis. There is no standing opening schedule. Tama City has been drawing up a preservation and utilisation plan for the house and storehouse, so arrangements may change; check the city's cultural properties pages before a visit. The exterior can be viewed freely from Tsurumaki Nishi Park.
- How do I get to Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya?
- The address is 2-22-2 Tsurumaki, Tama City, Tokyo. Karakida Station on the Odakyu Tama Line is roughly a five-minute walk. From Tama Center Station, take a bus from stop 11 to Tsurumaki Nishi Koen, one minute from the park entrance.
- Why is Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya built so tall for a single-storey house?
- Because the roof space holds two levels of silkworm rearing rooms. Sericulture was the main cash crop of the Meiji countryside, and rearing trays need warmth, ventilation and floor area. Raising the walls turned the roof void into productive space above the family's living quarters.
- What else is protected on the Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya site?
- Two things. The former Kawai Residence storehouse, southeast of the main house, was registered on the same day in 2020: a two-storey plastered dozō of 24 square metres. And a weeping cherry roughly two centuries old, designated a natural monument by Tama City, given to the city by the family in 2011.
- Is Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya an Important Cultural Property?
- No. It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. Registration is a lighter category than designation as an Important Cultural Property or National Treasure, applying to buildings over fifty years old and protecting chiefly the exterior.
Basic Information
| Name | Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya (川井家住宅主屋), main house of the Kawai Residence |
|---|---|
| Location | 2-22-2 and adjoining lots, Tsurumaki, Tama City, Tokyo |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); register no. 13-0432 |
| Year Designated | Registered 3 April 2020 (95th registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber frame, single storey, thatched roof under provisional metal covering; building area 199 m² |
| Owner | Tama City, Tokyo |
| Public Access | No regular interior opening. Exterior visible from Tsurumaki Nishi Park |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013236
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: former Kawai Residence storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013237
- Cultural Heritage Online: Kawai-ke Jutaku Omoya
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/411845
- Tama City: Cultural Properties of Tama City
- https://www.city.tama.lg.jp/kenkofukushi/1008238/1008143/1004081.html
- Tama City: Tsurumaki Nishi Park
- https://www.city.tama.lg.jp/map/kouen/1002510.html
Last verified: 2026.08.22