Kusumoto Family Residence

The Kusumoto Family Residence and its layout

The Kusumoto Family Residence (楠本家住宅, Kusumoto-ke Jūtaku) is the home of an old merchant family on the former Kōya Kaidō road in Shimizu, Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture, and its main house, detached room, storehouse and barn, built between the late Edo period and the mid-Meiji period, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2005.

The property runs between two streets. On the north it meets the old Kōya Kaidō, the road that once carried travelers toward Mount Kōya, and on the south a narrow back lane. The main house faces north onto the old road. Behind it to the south is the detached room, with the storehouse to the southeast of that. At the far end, the barn stretches east to west along the lane and closes off the southern edge of the plot.

Walk it from front to back and the order is simple: main house, then the detached room and storehouse, then the barn. The Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education describes the estate in the same sequence.

History of the Kusumoto Family Residence

According to the prefectural board, the Kusumoto family has deep roots here. In the early Meiji years it is said to have brokered paper and also dealt in marine products, grain and salt.

The four buildings are not quite the same age. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs database the oldest is the barn, from the late Edo period (1830 to 1867), followed by the storehouse from the beginning of Meiji, the detached room from early Meiji and the main house from mid-Meiji. The deeper into the plot you go, the older the building; the house on the road is the newest. That sequence hints at an estate filled out step by step between the end of the shogunate and the middle of Meiji.

The prefecture singles out the fine lattice across the ground floor of the main house and the board fences that run off to either side, and treats the Kusumoto Family Residence as an essential part of the historic streetscape of Shimizu.

The four registered Kusumoto buildings

All four buildings of the Kusumoto Family Residence were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on July 12, 2005, under consecutive numbers 30-0073 to 30-0076. The main house and detached room were registered as models of design, and the storehouse and barn for their contribution to the historic landscape.

• Kusumoto Family Residence Main House: mid-Meiji period, 2-story wooden building, tiled roof, building area 117 square meters
• Kusumoto Family Residence Detached Room: early Meiji period, 1-story wooden building, tiled roof, building area 68 square meters
• Kusumoto Family Residence Storehouse: beginning of the Meiji period, 2-story Dozo-zukuri storehouse, tiled roof, building area 27 square meters
• Kusumoto Family Residence Barn: late Edo period, 1-story wooden building, tiled roof, building area 89 square meters

The agency describes the roofs of the main house, storehouse and barn as Sangawara-buki pantiles. Read its descriptions side by side and another link appears: the three timber buildings, the main house, detached room and barn, all have the undersides of their eaves sealed in plaster. On the main house the plaster runs right over the rafters, which the agency reads as fireproofing; on the barn only the lane side is treated, to tidy the view from the street. Finding the same finish on three buildings of different dates is a useful thing to keep in mind at the Kusumoto house.

Visiting the Kusumoto Family Residence

The Kusumoto Family Residence is a private home, and we found no notice of the buildings or grounds being opened to visitors (checked October 2026). What you can expect to see is the front of the main house on the old Kōya Kaidō and the long wall of the barn on the lane to the south. Please do not step through any doorway, and keep photographs to the exterior from the street.

The nearest station is Kii-Shimizu on the Nankai Kōya Line. Measured by map coordinates, the main house of the Kusumoto Family Residence lies about 120 m north of the station in a straight line. On the road side, look for black plaster walls and a lattice front; on the lane side, the long wall of the barn. Walking both streets lets you compare the two faces of the estate.