Misaki Family Residence

The Misaki Family Residence

The Misaki Family Residence (御前家住宅) in Chayanocho, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, is an estate built between 1935 and 1938, and its main house, kitchen building and storehouse were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on June 12, 1997 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency reads the family name as Misaki.

The estate stands in the city centre close to Wakayama Castle, and the Agency records that all three buildings went up together. Its layout follows the pattern of the high-ranking samurai houses that once stood near the castle, and the Agency regards it as a clue to how this district looked in earlier times.

In the Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education list of registered properties in Wakayama City, it follows the Inoue Family Residence, registered in 1996, as one of the earliest registrations in the city.

The Three Buildings

The main house is a single-storey timber building whose wrap-around lean-to roof gives it a double tier of roofs; inside are log-built sukiya-style rooms and a Western-style reception room (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The kitchen building, with the dining room and cooking area, is a plain single storey under a hipped roof, in contrast to the grand main house. The two-storey storehouse turns its gable end to the back street.

Keeping the rooms for guests and the kitchen in separate buildings follows the samurai-house tradition of the Edo period, and the Agency sees the estate as a fine example of an early Showa residence. Each building is described on its own page.

Location and Visiting

Chayanocho lies southwest of the keep of Wakayama Castle, about 700 metres away in a straight line, and about 1.8 kilometres south of Nankai Wakayamashi Station (estimated from Geospatial Information Authority of Japan positions).

It appears to be a private home, and no official information on visits was found. Please do not enter the property; any viewing should be quiet and from outside.