Ito Family Residence (Arida)

The Ito Family Residence in Arida

The Ito Family Residence (伊藤家住宅, Itō-ke Jūtaku) is a mandarin farmer's homestead in Nakaban, Itoga-cho, Arida City, Wakayama Prefecture, whose main house and storehouse of the late Edo period (1830–1868) and late Meiji barn were all registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on May 10, 2018 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The homestead lies at the southern foot of the hills along the lower Arida River, and its main house looks south over a field. The Agency describes that field as the one associated with the beginnings of mandarin growing, the local industry. The property is privately owned.

Wakayama has a second registered Ito Family Residence, in the temple town of Gobo. That one is a townhouse and belongs to a different family.

Kishu Mandarins and the Ito Family Residence

The Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education presents Itoga-cho as the first place in the Arida district where mandarins were grown. By its account Magoemon, sixth head of the Ito family, brought mandarin trees from Yatsushiro in Higo (today's Kumamoto) in 1574 and so began citrus growing in Kishu. The field south of the Ito Family Residence is said to be the first mandarin field in Arida, and mandarins are still grown there.

The story rests on the Kishu Mikan Denraiki, a text of 1734. The Board adds that many documents deal with the arrival of the Kishu mandarin and that they disagree about where it came from and when. Land beside the homestead, at 1096 Nakaban and neighbouring lots, became a Wakayama prefectural historic site in 2011 as the "first place of the Kishu mandarin."

Nearby Arida Park holds a monument to Ito Magoemon put up by local residents in 1915 (Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education). The Ito Family Residence is the home of the family that has grown mandarins on this ground for generations.

The Layout of the Ito Family Residence

The Ito Family Residence meets the road on its north side, with the barn, main house and storehouse in a row, east to west (Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education). The way in passes east of the barn and through a gate. That gate and its flanking wall count as part of the barn and are registered with it.

The main house faces south near the middle of the plot. The storehouse stands to its west, deep in the plot and facing east, and the barn fills the north-east corner (Agency for Cultural Affairs). On the road side you see the storehouse gable and the hip-and-gable end of the barn; on the south, the long ridge of the main house runs out toward the field.

The Three Registered Buildings of the Ito Family Residence

The three buildings of the Ito Family Residence were registered on the same day under consecutive numbers, 30-231 to 30-233. All three were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

• Ito Family Residence Main House: late Edo period, extended in 1910, repaired in 2016; timber, single storey, tiled roof, building area 176 m²
• Ito Family Residence Storehouse: late Edo period; earthen-walled storehouse construction, two storeys, tiled roof, building area 26 m²
• Ito Family Residence Barn: late Meiji era; timber, two storeys, tiled roof, building area 66 m², with gate and flanking wall

The Board of Education points to the traditional construction of the three buildings, their weight in the landscape of Nakaban, and their close tie to the local industry as the house of a long line of mandarin farmers.

Visiting the Ito Family Residence

The Ito Family Residence is a private home and a working mandarin farm. Neither the Agency for Cultural Affairs nor Wakayama Prefecture mentions any opening of the buildings or grounds. Please look from the road only, and do not go through the gate or into the field.

The north gable of the storehouse and the hip-and-gable north end of the barn show from the road on the north side. The Agency itself notes that the storehouse gable can be seen from the road.

The nearest stations are Kii-Miyahara and Fujinami on the JR Kinokuni Line. Measured from map coordinates, Kii-Miyahara is about 1.7 km away in a straight line across the Arida River, and Fujinami about 1.6 km. The walk is longer than those figures, so allow extra time.