Sasaki Family Residence (Hino)

About the Sasaki Family Residence in Hino

The Sasaki Family Residence (佐々木家住宅, Sasaki-ke Jūtaku) in Funaba, Hino Town, Tottori Prefecture, is the homestead of an old local family whose four buildings, an Edo-period main house, a grain storehouse of 1829, a storehouse of 1900 and a reception wing of 1911, were entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 27, 2017.

According to Tottori Prefecture's cultural properties database, the Sasakis served at times as Shōya, village headmen, during the Edo period, and in the early Showa years the family produced a village mayor. The estate faces the old Izumo Kaidō highway, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs places it in the hamlet of Funaba beside the Hino River.

Funaba lies across the river from Neu, a post town on the Izumo Kaidō that grew rich in the age of Tatara iron smelting. Local guides describe the Sasaki Family Residence as an old farmhouse on the former highway just over the bridge from Neu Station.

Four Buildings from Late Edo to Late Meiji

All four buildings of the Sasaki Family Residence were registered on the same day, under the consecutive numbers 31-240 to 31-243. In order of age, the national database gives the following dates.

• Main house: late Edo period (1751 to 1830), altered in the mid-Meiji and early Showa periods
• Grain storehouse: 1829 (Bunsei 12)
• New storehouse: 1900 (Meiji 33)
• New reception wing: 1911 (Meiji 44)

The agency treats the grain storehouse as contemporary with the main house. The sequence is a house and its rice store in the late Edo period, then a second storehouse and a wing for guests in the last decade of Meiji. Each building was registered as one that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Building areas are 167 square meters for the main house, 75 for the reception wing, 31 for the grain storehouse and 35 for the new storehouse.

How the Sasaki Estate Is Laid Out

The main house of the Sasaki Family Residence stands at the back of the lot and faces south. The new reception wing sits to its west, joined by a covered passage.

In front of the main house, two clay-walled storehouses stand apart on either side: the grain storehouse to the southwest and the new storehouse to the southeast. Both face north, looking back at the house across the open ground between them.

The two storehouses are close in size and both use the Okiyane detached-roof system over Dozo-zukuri walls, but one is entered from the gable end (Tsumairi) and the other from the long side (Hirairi). Standing between them, you see how one family built the same kind of building twice, seventy years apart. Each building has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting the Sasaki Family Residence

The Sasaki Family Residence is now used as a guesthouse under the name Kominka Sasaki (SASAKI house), taken by advance reservation, according to the Hino district tourism portal and the Houki Tatara society's guide. No public viewing days or opening hours could be found as of September 2026, and a reserved stay is the only way inside that these sources describe.

No official guidance on photography could be found either. Guests stay and people live here, so if you look from outside the grounds, stay out of the gateway and keep other visitors out of your pictures.

The Sasaki Family Residence is about a five-minute walk from Neu Station on the JR Hakubi Line, crossing the Hino River into Funaba. By car, Neu is about 15 minutes from the Kōfu Interchange on the Yonago Expressway.