Sono Family Residence Annex

What the Sono Family Residence Annex Is

The Sono Family Residence Annex (薗家住宅離れ, Sono-ke Jūtaku Hanare) is a two-storey timber annex built around 1953 on the estate of the Sono family, former shipping merchants in Sono, Gobo City, Wakayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024. It is the youngest of the seven registered structures.

It stands toward the western end of the north side, facing south, with the west storehouse immediately to its east. The roof is a hip-and-gable Irimoya-zukuri with the entrance in the gable end, Tsumairi, laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the walls are clad in vertical boarding. With a building area of 25 square metres it is a compact building, one room stacked on another.

Around 1953 the main house and the south storehouse were also being altered. New work and repairs of that period laid over the late Edo house and storehouses to produce the estate as it stands today.

Why It Was Registered

As a rule, buildings become eligible for registration 50 years after construction. At the time of registration the Sono Family Residence Annex was about 70 years old, so a postwar building comfortably qualified.

The criterion is contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the annex continues the line of the west storehouse and helps shape the view along the north edge of the plot. There the annex and the west and east storehouses stand in a row, and the postwar annex closes the western end of two Edo storehouses. Its materials and roof differ from theirs, yet it forms part of the same north-side outline.

Each floor follows the same idea: a six-mat room with a built-in closet is pushed to the north, leaving the south side open to the light. The upper floor has a window on the north looking out over the Shitagawa river. Where a storehouse closes itself off to protect what is inside, the annex opens to take in the view.

What to Look For

Look at how the ground-floor south side is handled. The upper roof is carried down as a lean-to Geya, turning the space in front of the door into a sheltered east-west passage. You can come and go dry in the rain and walk under the eaves to the west storehouse next door, so this small building links the storehouse row to the yard.

The roof and walls also mark the date. Against the storehouses' heavy hongawarabuki tiles the annex has lighter pantiles, a type that spread in the modern era; against their white Shikkui plaster it has timber boarding. Along the north row, the point where the materials change is the line between Edo and Shōwa.

Visiting

The Sono Family Residence Annex is part of a private home, and neither the building nor the grounds are open (checked 24 September 2026). Its south front faces into the estate, well behind the main house on Shinmachi-dori, so it cannot be seen head-on from a public road.

The Shitagawa river runs to the north of the plot, but we could not confirm how the back of the annex appears from the river side. Please do not peer into the property.

Directions to the estate and general visiting conditions are on the Sono Family Residence page.