Yonehara Family Residence

The Yonehara Family Residence

The Yonehara Family Residence (米原家住宅, Yonehara-ke Jūtaku) is a merchant family compound on the corner where the Chizu Ōrai and Bizen Ōrai roads meet in Chizu Town, Tottori Prefecture; four of its structures, led by a main house built in about 1906, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 19, 2014 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to Chizu Town's cultural property map, the family traded under the house name 木綿屋, the "cotton house". In the Edo period they served as chief clerks to the Kokumai family, the area's ōjōya or head village officials, and in the modern era they became leading figures in Tottori Prefecture's politics and business. The plot was the Kokumai family's own residence until it passed to the Yonehara family in or after 1905.

Chizu-juku was a post town on the Inaba Kaidō, and in the Edo period it held the ochaya, an official lodging where the Ikeda lords of Tottori stopped on their journeys (Chizu Town). The town describes the ensemble of Yonehara buildings as a major contribution to the streetscape of Chizu-juku.

The Four Registered Structures

• Main house (registration no. 31-0198): about 1906; two-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 468 square metres
• Storehouse (31-0199): mid-Meiji, 1883 to 1897; moved within the site in about 1955; two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse
• Upper Gate and Wall (31-0200): early Taishō, 1912 to 1918; gate 4.0 metres wide, walls 22 metres in total length
• Lower Gate and Wall (31-0201): about 1906; gate 2.2 metres wide, walls 14 metres in total length

All four were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency's database does not list an owner. Each structure is described on its own page.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The main house of the Yonehara Family Residence fills the corner where the two roads meet. East of it, the Upper Gate opens onto the Chizu Ōrai: a Yakuimon from which walls run out to either side. South of the house, the Lower Gate is a side entrance onto the Bizen Ōrai, set back about half a bay from the street with walls meeting it at right angles. The storehouse stands at the back of the plot to the south (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

With a gate and wall on each road, both street fronts of the corner are given a finished face, and the Agency records each gate as shaping the view along its road.

Layers of Date

The storehouse is the oldest piece. Its door fittings carry the Kokumai family crest, a sword-and-wood-sorrel design, so it is thought to date from the mid-Meiji years before the Yonehara family took over the plot; it was moved from elsewhere on the site to its present position in about 1955 (Chizu Town).

The main house is dated by an Onigawara ridge-end tile, taken down from the roof during recent repairs, inscribed with the year Meiji 39, which is 1906 (Chizu Town). The Lower Gate is of the same date, and its glazed ridge-end tile bears the Yonehara crest, a lozenge-shaped quince flower (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Upper Gate and Wall followed in the early Taishō years.

The result is a compound that keeps the crests of both owning families: the Kokumai badge on the storehouse doors, the Yonehara badge on the Lower Gate roof.

Visiting

No official information was found on public opening of the Yonehara Family Residence, so a visit means viewing it from the street. On the Chizu Ōrai side you can see the Upper Gate and its walls; on the Bizen Ōrai side, the set-back Lower Gate and its right-angled walls. No official information was found on interior access or photography.

The compound is about 660 metres northeast of Chizu Station in a straight line, within walking distance (an estimate from the station position on OpenStreetMap and the site coordinates).