Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room

What the Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room is

The Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room (坂部家住宅離座敷, Sakabe-ke Jūtaku Hanare-zashiki) is an early-Shōwa (1926–1945) annex of formal rooms on the Sakabe estate in Fuchū, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

The annex stands east of the main house, which occupies the middle of the plot, and is joined to it by a covered corridor. It is a single-storey timber building of 39 m² with a tiled roof, and gardens lie against both its south and north sides. Wakayama Prefecture reports that it is said to date from the first years of the Shōwa era.

There are only two rooms, laid out north to south: a six-mat room and a four-and-a-half-mat room. The smaller northern room has a Tokonoma alcove. The southern room has a jibukuro instead, a low built-in cupboard of the kind usually placed beside an alcove, named as the counterpart of the tenbukuro cupboard set high on the wall.

Why the Sakabe detached reception room was registered

The Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to the careful joinery, with cedar logs and similar materials used at key points. Wakayama Prefecture adds that the work is careful throughout despite the building's small size, and that little has been altered.

By the time the annex went up, the main house had already stood in Fuchū for more than 60 years. Beside a big Edo farmhouse, the family added a separate building that is small in floor area but generous in finish. Because so little has changed, the rooms still show much of how they were fitted out in the early Shōwa years.

What to look for in the Sakabe detached reception room

The two rooms are given different verandas. The six-mat room on the south opens onto a Kirime-en, and a Kure-en runs around the north and west sides of the four-and-a-half-mat room. On a kirime-en the boards are laid at right angles to the building, while on a kure-en they run along its length. The same strip of floor looks quite different depending on which way the boards go.

The rooms differ in character too. The southern room faces the sun and has a cupboard rather than an alcove. The northern room has the alcove, with its veranda turning the corner on two sides. Even in a building this small, a bright, open room is paired with a quieter one built around the alcove.

It is worth looking for the cedar logs as well. The Agency mentions them without saying exactly where they are used. Peeled logs like these are most often left visible in places such as alcove posts and the eaves.

Visiting the Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room

The Sakabe Family Residence Detached Reception Room is part of a private home and is not open to the public. It sits behind the main house on the east, with gardens to the north and south, so expect very little of it to be visible from outside the property.

In a small building of formal rooms like this one, most of what matters is inside. If you hope to see the interior one day, the Wakayama City Culture Promotion Division is the place to ask about any opportunity. Advice on viewing the estate from outside, and directions, are on the Sakabe Family Residence page.