Kawaguchi Family Residence

About the Kawaguchi Family Residence

The Kawaguchi Family Residence (川口家住宅, Kawaguchi-ke Jūtaku) is a mikan-farming household in Nishiniunozu, Aridagawa Town, Wakayama Prefecture, built around a main house framed in 1915, whose five buildings and structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2018.

The estate sits on the flat land along the south bank of the Arida River, its southern edge running along the prefectural road between Kibi and Kanaya. Houses have spread across the area, but this is still mandarin country, and orchards of mikan, the small sweet citrus Arida is known for, surround the plot. The place name is read Nishi-niunozu, a reading worth noting because it is easy to get wrong.

According to Wakayama Prefecture, the Kawaguchi family is a branch of an older Kawaguchi line. The first head of the branch settled here and built the main house; his descendants worked as schoolteachers while growing mikan on the side. The painter Kawaguchi Kigai (1892 to 1966), one of the best-known Western-style artists from Wakayama, was a relative. During the Second World War he left Tokyo and lived on the upper floor of the annex at the Kawaguchi Family Residence.

Five Registered Buildings

All five parts of the Kawaguchi Family Residence were registered on 2 November 2018 as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, under consecutive numbers 30-0245 to 30-0249. The main house and the reception room were registered as models of design; the annex, the barn and the earthen wall were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The national database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main house: 1915. Single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 103 m²
• Reception room: 1968. Single-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 29 m²
• Annex: early Taisho era (1912 to 1918). Two-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 31 m²
• Barn: early Showa era (1926 to 1945). Two-storey timber, tiled roof, building area 38 m²
• Earthen wall: early Taisho era (1912 to 1918). Tiled coping, 6.1 m long

The 1915 date comes from a Munafuda, the ridge tag fixed in the roof when the frame was raised. The annex and the wall followed within a few years, the barn came in the early Showa era, and the reception room was added in 1968. That last building was registered in the year it turned fifty.

The prefecture points to two things: a main house whose date is firmly known, which makes it a reference point for modern Japanese-style houses in the area, and a farmstead set among citrus orchards that still shapes the local landscape. A storehouse in the northwest corner of the plot was not included in the registration.

How the Kawaguchi Family Residence Is Laid Out

The plot is long and narrow, running north to south, with the road along its southern end. The main house stands toward the north, facing south, its ridge running east to west. Inside, a through Doma (earth-floored passage) runs along the east side, and six rooms in two rows fill the west.

At the west corner of the main house front, linked by a corridor, is the reception room: a small Western-style building with coloured mortar walls, a roof of Western-pattern tiles and a tiled terrace. It faces east.

The east side of the plot meets a street. The barn stands along it, east of the main house, with a door opening straight onto the street. In the northeast corner the two-storey annex faces south, and a 6.1-metre earthen wall runs between the annex and the barn, marking the boundary of the estate.

From the street the mix of Japanese and Western finishes is easy to pick out. The annex is clad on three sides in white-painted clapboard, and the earthen wall is plastered in Shikkui on the inside but finished in Araidashi (washed aggregate) on the street face. Each building of the Kawaguchi Family Residence has its own page with the details.

Visiting the Kawaguchi Family Residence

The Kawaguchi Family Residence is privately owned and has no public opening days. Wakayama Prefecture reports that the buildings are leased by a social welfare corporation based in Aridagawa and used as an employment support facility, so whether you can go inside depends on that use. Check before you go.

Otherwise the estate is seen from the road. Going by the layout, the front of the main house and the reception room face the prefectural road to the south, while the barn, the wall and the annex line the street to the east. Stay off the property and take photographs from the public road.

By public transport, take an Arida Tetsudo bus from the east exit of Fujinami Station on the JR Kisei Line (Kinokuni Line) and get off at Nishi-niunozu (西丹生ノ図), the seventh stop. Buses on the Hanazono Line toward Kanayaguchi stop there, and map services place the stop about a minute on foot from the Kawaguchi Family Residence. Check the timetable before setting out (as of October 2026).