Mikamo Family Residence

What Is the Mikamo Family Residence?

The Mikamo Family Residence (美甘家住宅, Mikamo-ke Jūtaku) is an old family estate at 170 Maeda, Tokorogo, in Daisen, Tottori Prefecture, whose late-Edo main house, 1861 New Storehouse and Meiji-era gates, storehouses and stable were registered as seven Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan in 2009. The surname 美甘 is read Mikamo.

According to Daisen Town, the family descends from a local landholding clan rooted in the area since the late medieval period. The town's walking map of Tokorogo traces it to Mikamo Yoichizaemon, who is said to have acted as an envoy for the Mōri side when remnants of the Amago clan fought the Mōri in 1571. In the early seventeenth century the first head of the Edo-period line, Yazaemon, is credited with rebuilding the shrines of the Kamo and Tadasu deities in Tokorogo and founding Ganjōji temple in nearby Hiraki.

Tokorogo is a farming village on the northern foot of Mount Daisen, selected on December 27, 2013 as a Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Its houses fall into two clusters, Kami to the southeast and Shimo to the northwest. The Mikamo Family Residence stands in Kami, the older part of the village, which the town says grew up around leading families such as the Mikamo.

The Seven Buildings of the Mikamo Family Residence

All seven buildings of the Mikamo Family Residence were registered together on April 28, 2009, under numbers 31-0148 through 31-0154, each on the grounds that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates them as follows.

• Main House: late Edo period, extended in the early Meiji era
• New Storehouse: 1861
• Treasure Storehouse: 1889
• Front Gate, Middle Gate and Earthen Wall, Warehouse, Former Stable: early Meiji era

Daisen Town's own summary differs slightly. It places the main house at the very end of the Edo period and puts both the New Storehouse and the Warehouse in the late Edo period, while the national database has the Warehouse as early Meiji. This site follows the national database for each building's date.

Either way the sequence is the same: an Edo-period house and storehouse at the core, with the gates, garden wall, Treasure Storehouse and stable added in the Meiji era.

How the Mikamo Estate Is Laid Out

The Main House of the Mikamo Family Residence sits in the middle of the plot facing east, and the other six buildings ring it. The Front Gate is set back a little from the street on the east side and opens onto the forecourt in front of the house. A short earthen wall with a small gate runs north and south from the line between the formal reception room and the Buddhist altar room, splitting the forecourt where guests arrived from the private garden in front of the reception room.

The Treasure Storehouse stands on the south edge of the plot, just east of center, where it lines the street together with a water channel and a hedge. The New Storehouse is tucked west of the house beside the back gate. North of the house, the Former Stable and the Warehouse stand end to end on a single ridge line, the stable to the east.

Three of the buildings, the Main House, the New Storehouse and the Front Gate, carry stones laid along the top of the ridge. The national database singles this out as a regional trait, and it is the easiest detail to compare across the Mikamo roofs.

Visiting the Mikamo Family Residence

The Mikamo Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public; the town's walking map states this plainly. Visitors can only look at the buildings from the street and should not step inside the gate. The town asks people not to enter the grounds of any private house in the district unless a sign marks it as open.

We found no official guidance on photography (checked October 2026). If you take pictures from the road, keep residents, cars and the household inside the gate out of the frame.

Tokorogo is about a 20-minute walk from Daisen-guchi Station on the JR San'in Line. By car, leave the San'in Expressway at Daisen IC, head toward Daisen-guchi Station and turn right at the first traffic light; the visitor car park (the town martial arts hall lot) is about 300 meters along. Because the district is a living village, the town asks drivers to use this lot and explore on foot rather than driving into the narrow lanes past the Mikamo Family Residence.