Iwata Family Residence

The Iwata Family Residence

The Iwata Family Residence (岩田家住宅, Iwata-ke Jūtaku) in Tachikawacho, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, is a merchant-town compound built between the late Edo period and the Taisho era; its main house, tea house and annex were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 25, 2014 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). They carry the consecutive registration numbers 31-0184 to 31-0186, all three listed for their contribution to the historic landscape.

The Agency places the property toward the south of the old castle town of Tottori. The main house is a large Machiya townhouse facing the street to the west, 8 ken (bays) wide, and its red roof tiles and deep lean-to eaves mark it as a regional type.

How the Compound Fits Together

The main house stands on the street. The tea house is joined to its southeast corner, and the annex stands east of the tea house, reached by a roofed passage (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Both the tea house and the annex open their verandas and eaves northward onto a garden, while the south wall of the annex faces a street.

Each building belongs to a different era. The main house dates from the late Edo period and was remodelled in the middle of the Meiji era; the tea house was built in 1900 and the annex in 1917 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Behind an Edo-period townhouse, garden rooms were added first in Meiji and then in Taisho.

The Agency credits the tea house with creating a quiet garden space, and the annex with forming, together with it, a well-kept scene. The structure of each building is covered on its own page.

A House Linked to the Poet Ozaki Hosai

Tottori Prefecture lists the Iwata house in 1-chome Tachikawacho among the places associated with the haiku poet Ozaki Hōsai (尾崎放哉), who grew up in Tottori. According to the prefecture, it was the home of Iwata (岩田勝市), a literary friend from Hōsai's years at Tottori First Middle School, who often held haiku gatherings in the annex.

The same page says that timber salvaged from Tottori Castle was used in the house, without saying in which building or where.

Visiting

No official information on public opening or visits to the Iwata Family Residence was found. Please stay off the property and view the street front of the main house from outside.

The address is 1-94 Tachikawacho, Tottori City, about 1.6 kilometres east of JR Tottori Station in a straight line (a rough estimate from the map).