Kiwata Family Residence Annex

What Is the Kiwata Family Residence Annex?

The Kiwata Family Residence Annex (木綿家住宅離れ, Kiwata-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is a detached set of rooms behind the main house on the Kiwata estate in Horidomehigashi, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture; built around 1940, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 21 June 2013. It is a timber building, single-storey with a partial second floor, under a tiled roof, 84 square meters in plan.

The Kiwata Family Residence Annex stands behind the main house across a small courtyard, in a secluded part of the property. Two tatami rooms occupy its east side, and at the west end is a six-mat Chashitsu, or tea room.

A Stepped Roof and Fanned Rafters

The annex roof is laid in pantiles in the Shikoro-buki manner: a visible step divides the upper gable from the lower slopes, so the roof reads in two tiers. It is a neat way of handling a building that is mostly one storey with a second floor over part of it, and it keeps the mass from looking top-heavy.

Look up at the eaves of the upper floor and you will see Ōgidaruki, rafters that fan out toward the corner like the ribs of a folding fan instead of running parallel. The technique is best known from the eaves of Zen Buddhist halls; here it turns up on the small upper storey of a private house.

The Tea Room

The heart of the Kiwata Family Residence Annex is the tea room at its west end. Logs are used with their bark still on, posts are Menkawa-bashira that keep a strip of the round log surface at each corner, and the ceiling battens are bamboo. The whole room is handled in the spirit of Sukiya-zukuri, the tea-house style that lets natural materials show.

The contrast with the main house is deliberate. There, a Spanish-tiled parlor with arched windows greets visitors with modern taste; here, built at about the same time, the family retreated into the rustic vocabulary of tea. The two buildings divide public face and private ease between them.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Kiwata annex as refined in its construction. It is Registration No. 30-0172, listed for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting

The Kiwata Family Residence Annex is privately owned; neither the tea room nor any other part of the interior is open to the public. Because it sits behind the main house and the courtyard, it is almost invisible from the road.

The stepped roof and the tea room can be seen in photographs in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database. If you visit the area, please do not enter the private grounds.