Kada Family Residence Main House

What Is the Kada Family Residence Main House?

The Kada Family Residence Main House (加田家住宅主屋, Kada-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a single-storey wooden house in Yabu-no-cho, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, framed in 1929 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2007.

It stands at the center of the lot and measures 20 meters east to west and 23 meters north to south, with a building area of 266 m² under a Sangawara-buki tile roof. Wakayama City credits the master carpenter Taniguchi Kamesaburō, working with his assistant Oka Tōjirō.

Why the Kada Family Residence Main House Was Registered

The Kada Family Residence Main House was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape. Its registration number, 30-0103, is the first of the nine at the residence.

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is the exterior. The entrance and the roofs are handled so that a large one-storey house never looks flat or repetitive. The tea house and tea garden built two years later lie behind the Main House, on the far side of its garden.

What to Look for at the Kada Family Residence Main House

Start with the grand entrance at the center of the front. Three Irimoya-zukuri gable ends show above it, overlapping one another, and below the main eaves a further layer of Geya lean-to roofs is tucked in. The roofline of the Kada Family Residence Main House breaks into steps both up and back.

On the garden side, the reception rooms are set in a staggered, echelon plan known as gankō, each Zashiki stepping out diagonally from the last, with a veranda running around the outside. The arrangement gives every room its own corner on the garden.

Photographs of the entrance and of the house seen from the garden appear on the Agency's database and on Wakayama City's heritage site.

Visiting the Kada Family Residence Main House

The Kada Family Residence Main House is a private home and its interior is not open to the public. The Front Gate and Wall stand between the house and the street, and how much of the Main House can be seen from the road has not been confirmed. Please do not enter the property. Directions and the history of the compound are on the page for the Kada Family Residence.