Takahashi Family Residence (Nishitokyo)

About the Takahashi Family Residence (Nishitokyo)

The Takahashi Family Residence (Nishitokyo) (髙橋家住宅, Takahashi-ke Jūtaku) is a suburban farmstead in Shimohoya 3-chome, Nishitokyo City, Tokyo, whose five buildings, led by a main house of 1927, were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 27, 2018.

The five are the main house, the front gate, a storehouse, a clothing storehouse and a barn. The barn is the oldest and goes back to the late Edo period; only the main house belongs to the Showa era. A few minutes' walk from Hōya Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, in a district now filled with ordinary homes, the property still holds the complete kit of a farm estate on one plot: gate, dwelling, storehouses and barn.

Nishitokyo's tourist information site, Nishitokyo City Information Web, identifies this as the Takahashi household known locally as Sakuza (作左衛門), one of many Takahashi families in Shimohōya. It says the family moved through indigo-ball production, tea processing, silk farming and grain brokering before settling back into farming. The site notes that its articles draw on interviews and published material and that accounts of the history differ.

Spelling, and a Different Takahashi Estate Nearby

The first character of the name is written 髙, a variant form of 高 known as hashigo-daka. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database and Nishitokyo City's cultural property plan both use 髙橋家住宅, and the spelling 高橋家住宅 also appears; either way it is the same Takahashi Family Residence.

Shimohōya 4-chome, the next district block, has the city-owned Former Takahashi Family Estate Woodland (旧高橋家屋敷林), a protected green space. That belongs to another Takahashi household and a different address. When searching a map, check that you are looking at 3-chome, not 4-chome.

The Five Registered Buildings in Order of Age

The five structures of the Takahashi Family Residence joined the register in its 89th round, under registration numbers 13-396 to 13-400, as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. All five qualified for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates them as follows, oldest first.

• Barn: late Edo period (1830 to 1868), built as a stable and raised to 2 stories in the early Showa era
• Storehouse: 1875
• Clothing storehouse: around 1875
• Front gate: Meiji era (1868 to 1912)
• Main house: 1927

The dwelling at the center of the estate is the youngest building. The Edo barn and the Meiji storehouses and gate came first, and the early Showa main house joined them later. The two storehouses were built at about the same time and each covers 25 square meters, yet their floor plans are quite different in shape.

How the Takahashi Estate Is Laid Out

Reading the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions together gives a rough plan of the Takahashi Family Residence. The main house stands at the back of the plot, running east to west. The front gate lies to its south. The storehouse sits southeast of the house and faces west, the clothing storehouse stands north of the house facing south, and the barn is to the northeast.

You approach through the gate on the south side toward the house at the rear, with storehouses and barn guarding its flanks and back. In its note on the barn, the Agency says the building is essential for understanding how the farmstead was arranged, which is a good reason to think of the five as a set.

Nishitokyo's cultural property plan describes how farm families here grew woodland around their houses as shelter from strong winds and blowing dust and as a source of firewood. The tourist site mentions a great zelkova in the Takahashi garden said to be more than 350 years old. Each building's own page covers its construction and details.

Visiting the Takahashi Family Residence (Nishitokyo)

The Takahashi Family Residence is a private home, and no notice of public opening could be found as of September 2026. Visitors can only look at what is visible from outside the property; the grounds beyond the gate are closed. There is no official guidance on photography either, so if you take pictures from the road, keep residents and the household out of the frame.

The nearest station is Hōya on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, reached directly from Ikebukuro. From the north exit the residence lies about 500 meters to the northwest in a straight line, roughly a 10-minute walk.