Ito Family Residence Main House

A Late Edo Farmhouse in the Mandarin Country of Arida

The Ito Family Residence Main House (伊藤家住宅主屋) is the main house of a mandarin farm of the late Edo period (1830–1868) in Nakaban, Itoga-cho, Arida City, Wakayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on May 10, 2018 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 176 square metres, extended in 1910 and repaired in 2016; registration number 30-231.

A building of the same name, the Ito Family Residence Main House in Gobo City, is an early Taisho townhouse and a separate property.

A Long Ridge Facing the Mandarin Field

The Ito Family Residence Main House stands at the southern foot of the hills along the lower Arida River, facing south over the field linked with the beginnings of mandarin growing (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Within the homestead it sits between the barn on the east and the storehouse on the west.

The roof is gabled and laid in hongawara, alternating flat and round tiles, and the house is of the tsushi-nikai type, with a low loft storey under the roof. Over the lower end of the earthen-floored area the ridge drops a step (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education the earthen floor is on the east and the raised rooms on the west, and the lowered ridge covers the earthen-floored part. The Agency's structural entry reads "timber, single storey," while its description says tsushi-nikai.

The plan starts from a staggered layout of 4 rooms in which the daidokoro, the family living room, juts toward the earthen floor, a form found in northern and central Kii and the lower Arida valley (Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education). In 1910 reception rooms were added at the upper end, making 6 rooms. The year of building is not recorded; form and technique point to the end of the Edo period.

Why It Was Registered

The Ito Family Residence Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency judges that its long, heavy exterior forms the core of the hillside village scene. The Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education adds that traditional interiors in good timber survive well, and values the house for its tie to the local industry as the home of a long line of mandarin farmers.

What to Look For

From outside, watch the roofline of the Ito Family Residence Main House. The big gabled roof in hongawara runs a long way and then steps down over the earthen-floored end, so the roof itself tells you where the living rooms stop and the work floor begins.

The low loft storey and the thick tile roof together give the long, heavy look the Agency describes.

Visiting

The Ito Family Residence Main House is a private home, and no interior opening has been announced. Its front faces the field to the south, which is still a working mandarin plot. Stay out of the field and the gate, and look from the road only.

How much of the main house shows from the road on the north has not been confirmed. The layout of the homestead and directions are on the page for the Ito Family Residence (Arida).