Sakaguchi Family Residence

About the Sakaguchi Family Residence

The Sakaguchi Family Residence (坂口家住宅, Sakaguchi-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant household compound in Odakamachi, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, built around a main house of 1892, and five of its structures were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2009.

The house stands at the foot of Tenjin Bridge on the old Kamo River, which once served as the outer moat of Yonago Castle. It was the home of a branch of the Sakaguchi family, merchants who ran a cotton wholesale business in Yonago during the Edo period.

The five registered items are the Main House, the Detached House and Connecting Corridor, the Earthen Floor Storehouse (Domagura), the Storehouse, and the Gate and Wall. They carry the consecutive registration numbers 31-0142 to 31-0146 and all became Registered Tangible Cultural Property entries on April 28, 2009, with the official gazette notice following on May 14. Each was registered under the same criterion: contributing to the historic landscape of the country. When the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended them on March 19, 2009, the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education listed the Sakaguchi Family Residence first among 13 buildings in the prefecture.

A Branch House of a Cotton Merchant Family

According to Yonago City, the Sakaguchi were wealthy cotton wholesalers in Edo-period Yonago, and the Sakaguchi Family Residence was built by a line that split from the main family in the Meiji era. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Main House and the Earthen Floor Storehouse to 1892 and the Storehouse to 1896.

The family kept building. The Main House was remodeled during the Taisho era and again in the early Showa era, the Detached House and Connecting Corridor went up in 1926, and the Gate and Wall date from the late Taisho era. What survives is a Meiji core with a Taisho-period annex and street front added to it.

The old Kamo River behind the property was the main waterway for moving goods through the castle town. Yonago City considers the residence, standing along this former moat, a faithful expression of the taste and spirit of the city's upper merchant class in the Meiji and Taisho periods.

How the Sakaguchi Family Residence Is Laid Out

The plot of the Sakaguchi Family Residence measures 16 meters east to west and 45 meters north to south, the long, narrow strip typical of a Machiya town house lot. Buildings line the edges of the site and a garden fills the middle. Streets run along the north and west sides, and the south edge meets the old Kamo River.

On the north street are a shop building, which is not part of the registration, and the Gate and Wall. The Main House occupies the northwest corner. From it, the Connecting Corridor runs south along the west street to the Detached House. The Earthen Floor Storehouse stands midway along the east side, south of the Main House kitchen, and the Storehouse sits at the far south end on the riverbank.

A walk around the outside works best starting on the north street. Look up at the layered roofs of the Main House on the corner and the gate and wall to its east, then turn the corner and head south along the west street, where the walls of the Detached House and corridor double as the compound's outer wall. Finish on the river side, where the back of the Storehouse faces the water.

Visiting the Sakaguchi Family Residence

The Sakaguchi Family Residence is a private home, and both Tottori Prefecture and Yonago City list its interior as closed to the public. Visitors can only view the exterior from the street and cannot enter the grounds. Public sources mention no special openings (checked October 2, 2026). There is no posted guidance on photography either, so if you photograph the buildings from the road, please be considerate of the people who live there.

The easiest way to reach the Sakaguchi Family Residence is the Dandan Bus, Yonago City's community bus, from JR Yonago Station to the Tenjin-bashi stop, which is right by the house. By rail, Fujimichō Station on the JR Sakai Line is about a 12-minute walk away. No visitor parking is provided.