Higashikadowaki Family Residence

About the Higashikadowaki Family Residence

The Higashikadowaki Family Residence (東門脇家住宅, Higashi-Kadowaki-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a branch of the Kadowaki family at 425 Tokorogo, Daisen Town, Tottori Prefecture, where nine structures, from a main house built in 1818 to a Taisho-era gatehouse and earthen wall, were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2004 and 2005.

According to Daisen Town, the household was founded by Shūzaburō, a second son of the fourth head of the main Kadowaki house (known locally as Hon-Kadowaki). He set up his own estate on the east side of the Bōryō road, a pilgrimage route to Mount Daisen, directly across from the main house. That position gave the family its everyday name: Higashi-Kadowaki, "the eastern Kadowaki." The branch later went into sake brewing and money lending, and the estate still has its brewing storehouses and a room that once served as a bank's local office.

Tokorogo is a farming village on the northern foot of Mount Daisen. On December 27, 2013, it was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings under the name Daisen-cho Tokorogo. The Higashikadowaki estate stands in the northern cluster of houses that villagers call Shimo, one of three Kadowaki households in the village alongside the main house and the southern branch, Minami-Kadowaki.

Nine Structures and the Order They Were Built

Seven of the Higashikadowaki Family Residence structures were registered on November 8, 2004, and two more on July 12, 2005, under registration numbers 31-0080 to 31-0086, 31-0093 and 31-0094. Arranged by the dates given in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database, they run as follows.

• Main house: 1818 (Bunsei 1)
• Former sake storehouse and former koji room: 1898 (Meiji 31)
• Former miso storehouse: 1899 (Meiji 32)
• Storehouse: 1918 (Taisho 7)
• Dressing room and barn: around 1918
• Gate row house and west earthen wall: Taisho period (1912 to 1925)

The sequence is easy to read. One late Edo house came first; the family's brewing and miso buildings followed in 1898 and 1899; and the Taisho years brought a storehouse, the gate, the wall and a bath and dressing annex. Only the main house was registered as a model of form. The other eight qualify because they contribute to the historic landscape.

Put another way, the Meiji buildings are mostly about making things, while the Taisho ones mostly shape what the estate shows to the street.

How the Higashikadowaki Estate Is Laid Out

The Higashikadowaki Family Residence occupies a corner lot, with the Bōryō road along its west side and another road along its south. The main house stands near the middle of the plot, facing south. South of it, the dressing room building and a garden wall with a small inner gate divide the forecourt in front of the entrance from the garden laid out before the reception rooms.

Along the south road, the storehouse holds the southwest corner, the gate row house sits in the middle of the frontage and the barn fills the southeast corner. Together they form the estate's formal face. The west side is different in character: a water channel runs beside the Bōryō road, and the west earthen wall follows the bends of the street from the storehouse up to the former miso storehouse, stepping its roof up over a washing place partway along. The two brewing buildings sit at the back of the lot, to the north.

The individual pages for each structure go into construction and details.

Visiting the Higashikadowaki Family Residence

The Higashikadowaki Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public; Daisen Town's walking map says so plainly. Visitors can only look at the buildings from the Bōryō road and the south road. The town also asks visitors not to enter private property in the district unless it is marked as open.

No official guidance on photography could be found as of September 2026. If you photograph from the road, keep residents, cars and the view through the gate out of the frame.

Tokorogo is about a 20-minute walk from Daisenguchi Station on the JR San'in Line. Drivers can use the Daisen interchange on the San'in Expressway. The town asks people arriving by car to park at the designated lot beside the town martial arts hall and walk around the district, rather than driving into its narrow lanes.