Murano Family Residence

About the Murano Family Residence

The Murano Family Residence (村野家住宅, Murano-ke Jūtaku) is a farm estate in Yanagikubo 4-chome, Higashikurume City, Tokyo, whose seven structures, led by a thatched main house of 1838, were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on January 26, 2011.

The seven are the main house, an annex, three storehouses (the storehouse, the grain storehouse and the new storehouse), a yakuimon front gate and an inner gate called the Chujakumon. Higashikurume's Board of Education describes the main house as the only Edo-period thatched farmhouse still standing in the city. It is unusual for a single household to have this many buildings on the register.

The owner, Kaneshichi Co., Ltd., began calling the grounds and buildings Kosoen (顧想園, Kosōen) after the registration, and the property is often listed as "Murano Family Residence (Kosoen)" in tour notices and local walking guides. Kosoen is a family name for the estate; the Agency for Cultural Affairs uses only Murano Family Residence.

The Murano Family and the Name Kosoen

According to Kosoen's official website, the farmers who opened up Yanagikubo included a clan named Murano, and the Murano Family Residence belongs to one of its branch households, which added to the house and storehouses bit by bit over several generations. The website says the name Kosoen was taken from a passage in Musashino, the short prose work by the Meiji writer Kunikida Doppo about the woodlands of the Tokyo plain.

Yanagikubo, the Setting of the Murano Estate

Yanagikubo lies at the western edge of Higashikurume. Kosoen's website explains that part of the Tama River's water sinks underground near Ōme and resurfaces here as the source of the Kurome River, and that a farming village grew up around the springs after settlers arrived from the mid-Edo period onward. The fan-shaped ground favored dry fields over rice paddies.

Housing spread across the area from around 1955. Local residents pushed back: the same site says about 12.2 hectares were reclassified in 1990 as an area where urban development is restrained, and in 1995 part of that land and the adjoining coppice became the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Yanagikubo Green Conservation Area. The tall zelkova trees and estate woodland around the Murano Family Residence are part of the landscape kept by those efforts.

The Seven Registered Structures in Order of Age

The seven structures of the Murano Family Residence joined the register in its 69th round, under registration numbers 13-0268 to 13-0274, as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. The main house qualified as a model of form; the other six qualified for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates them as follows, roughly oldest first. The two late Edo storehouses carry a date range, so their order relative to the main house is not known.

• Main house: 1838, enlarged in 1857
• Storehouse: late Edo period (1830 to 1868)
• Grain storehouse: late Edo period (1830 to 1868), moved within that period
• Yakuimon gate: 1881
• New storehouse: 1895
• Annex: late Meiji era (1898 to 1912), moved to the estate in the late Taisho era
• Chujakumon gate: late Taisho era (1919 to 1926)

The Edo main house and two storehouses form the core. The Meiji years brought the front gate and a new storehouse, and the Taisho years an annex and an inner gate. Buildings were added over about 90 years, from the Tenpō era to the Taishō era, and that slow accumulation is what gives the estate its depth.

How the Murano Estate Is Laid Out

Reading the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions together gives a rough plan of the Murano Family Residence. The main house stands in the middle of the plot facing south, with the annex to its west, linked by a covered passage. The storehouse is north of the main house, the grain storehouse to its southwest, and the new storehouse just north of the grain storehouse. The yakuimon, the front gate, stands southeast of the main house at the southeast corner of the grounds.

A board fence runs between the main house and the new storehouse, separating the front garden from the inner garden, and the Chujakumon gate opens in the middle of it. A visitor thus passes through two gates: the yakuimon into the front garden, then the Chujakumon into the inner garden. Each building's own page covers its construction and details.

Visiting the Murano Family Residence

The Murano Family Residence is a private home and is normally closed. Kaneshichi runs special guided tours in spring and autumn: groups of about 10 walk the grounds with a guide, who explains the buildings from outside. Tours last about 90 minutes and do not go indoors. Places must be requested in advance by return-reply postcard or email, and each tour day has a morning and an afternoon session. The spring 2026 tours cost 1,000 yen for adults and 200 yen for elementary school children.

The autumn 2026 tours are scheduled for Saturday, November 14 and Wednesday, November 25, each with sessions at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Kosoen's website says application details and fees will be posted on October 1 (checked September 30, 2026). Inquiries go to Kaneshichi's tour desk at 042-344-6735, weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., in Japanese.

On other days, Higashikurume City notes that the yakuimon gate and the estate woodland around it can be seen from the road. There is no official guidance on photography, so if you take pictures from the road, keep the household out of the frame.

By public transport, take Seibu Bus route Bu 21 (武21) from the west exit of Higashi-Kurume Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, or from Musashi-Koganei Station on the JR Chuo Line, and get off at Yanagikubo 1-chome. The Tama-hokubu regional council's guide gives 14 minutes by bus from Higashi-Kurume Station and a 10-minute walk from the stop. Kosoen's own website names Kodaira Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line as the nearest station. Map apps and car navigation can lead to a rear gate that is kept closed, so check the entrance on the area map on Kosoen's website before you go.