Takasagoya (Castle Town Tottori Community Center) Residential Wing

The Family's Living Quarters

Takasagoya (Castle Town Tottori Community Center) Residential Wing (高砂屋（城下町とっとり交流館）住居棟, jukyo-to) is the early-Meiji living wing of a merchant house in Motodaiku-cho, Tottori City, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007.

It stands immediately west of the Shop Wing and, like its neighbour, faces the street: a two-storey timber building with a Sangawara-buki tiled roof and a footprint of 85 square metres. Together the two made up the main house of the Takasagoya cotton business, with trade conducted on one side and family life on the other.

The national database dates the Takasagoya Residential Wing to the early Meiji period, which makes it older than the Shop Wing. Both were moved by Hikiya in 2004 to their present position.

Look at the pair from the street and you will see that the Residential Wing sits about half a Ken further forward, so its corner nudges out past the line of the shop.

Why It Was Registered: Built Against Fire

The official description calls the Residential Wing plainer than the Shop Wing, then praises it for a weighty, fire-conscious design.

Three measures do the work. The undersides of both the lower and upper eaves are sealed in Shikkui lime plaster; the upper-floor facade is plastered too; and the front carries sode-udatsu, small projecting firewalls of the Udatsu type.

Sode-udatsu jut out at either side of the upper storey to stop flames creeping along the eaves from a burning neighbour. Tottori Prefecture's heritage database notes a pair of them on the front of the Takasagoya Residential Wing. Wrapping a house in white plaster and hiding as much timber as possible was how town merchants in a crowded castle town hedged against fire.

The Shop Wing opens itself to the street with long lintels and heavy posts; the Residential Wing closes up behind plaster. The contrast between the two buildings mirrors the difference between doing business and keeping house.

What to Look For

Cross the street and look back. From there the two firewalls, the white upper facade and the forward-set corner all fit into one view.

Then come close and look up under the eaves. Because the soffits are plastered over, the rafters you would normally see on a townhouse are hidden, a finish chosen precisely to keep bare wood out of reach of sparks.

Visiting the Residential Wing

Inside, the Takasagoya Residential Wing has been converted for use by the community center. The house's guide explains that a rest room and wooden-floored meeting rooms were added for public use, and the published floor plan places a rest room and office on the west side of the ground floor and two wooden-floored rooms, large and small, on the west side upstairs. Given that the Residential Wing forms the western half of the main house, these spaces appear to correspond to it.

Visitors may use the ground-floor rest room. The wooden-floored rooms upstairs are let out for meetings, and the city tourism site says they can be viewed free when not booked. The office is off limits.

The facade can be seen from the street at any time. There is no published photography policy, so ask at reception before photographing indoors.