Sakabe Family Residence Main House

What the Sakabe Family Residence Main House is

The Sakabe Family Residence Main House (坂部家住宅主屋, Sakabe-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a late-Edo (1751–1829) farmhouse in Fuchū, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, that was moved to its present site in 1862 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006.

The house stands near the middle of the Sakabe estate. It measures 9 Ken along the ridge by 7 ken across, with a building area of 220 m². The roof is a hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri form covered in Hongawarabuki tiles, and the entrance is on one of the long sides parallel to the ridge, the arrangement called Hirairi. Lean-to roofs, or Geya, wrap all four sides, and the wall that rises above them is finished in black Shikkui plaster.

On the long sides, that black wall is pierced by Mushiko-mado vent windows in a mokkō shape, an outline of four joined arcs that looks a little like a flower and turns up in family crests. Curved openings set into a black plaster band are one of the features that give the Sakabe main house its character from outside.

A house that came by raft: the move and the registration

The Sakabe Family Residence Main House was not built in Fuchū. According to the Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education, it was a farmhouse in Minoshima, now part of Arida City, and was moved to its current site in 1862. Wakayama City adds two details: the building was carried by raft, and a record states that the move cost 22 kanme of silver, about 82 kg.

Minoshima lies near the mouth of the Arida River, while Fuchū is on the north bank of the Kinokawa. Published sources do not say which route the raft took. Even so, a written account of a large farmhouse being taken apart, floated away and rebuilt, complete with its price, is an unusual thing to have survived alongside the house itself.

The main house was registered on March 2, 2006, for contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a large-scale farm building that stands out within the village. It has now been the centre of the Sakabe estate for more than 160 years.

What to look for at the Sakabe main house

Inside, the best-known room is the Tsuru-no-ma, or Crane Room, a formal Zashiki fitted with sliding doors painted with cranes. Wakayama Prefecture calls it a lavish room, and Wakayama City gives its size as 22 tatami mats. The old earth-floored Doma area has been altered, but the other rooms are said to be well preserved.

From outside, look at how the roofs stack. The great hipped-and-gabled roof sits above the lean-tos that run around the house, so the tiles should read as two separate tiers. The black plaster band and its mokkō windows, caught between the two, make a single-storey house look tall.

An irimoya roof combines a gable at the top with slopes that run down on all four sides below it. Comparing the triangle of the gable end with the long, level eaves of the lean-tos is a good way to grasp just how big the Sakabe main house is.

Visiting the Sakabe Family Residence Main House

The Sakabe Family Residence Main House is a private home, and its interior, Crane Room included, is not open to the public. Neither the prefecture nor the city lists any open days, so there is currently no known chance to see the painted doors.

The house sits near the middle of the property, with the gate row house in front of it on the west. Expect to see little more than the main roof and the top of the black plaster wall from outside. Take photographs only from the road and do not enter the grounds. How to reach the estate is covered on the Sakabe Family Residence page.