Ueminami Family Residence

The Ueminami Family Residence and its layout

The Ueminami Family Residence (上南家住宅, Ueminami-ke Jūtaku) is a mountain farmstead in Tani, Kimino Town, Kaiso District, Wakayama Prefecture, whose main house is thought to date from the early 18th century, and four of its buildings were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2019.

The family name 上南 is read Ueminami. The house stands in the upper reaches of the Kishi River, on the western slope above the hamlet of Tani, where the plot runs long and narrow from north to south and the view opens out to the east. The guesthouse that now occupies the property gives the elevation as about 300 meters; the last stretch is a side road climbing away from National Route 370.

The four buildings line up roughly south to north. The Nagayamon gate holds the southern corner and faces south. The main house sits in the middle of the plot with its front turned east. The Konashiya barn stands hard against the north side of the main house, and the Hiya, a detached reception room, closes the row at the northern corner. Because the main house has its earth-floored work area at the south end and its rooms at the north, the Hiya faces the formal end of the house. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits this arrangement with tightening the whole compound.

History of the Ueminami Family Residence

According to the Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education, the Ueminami family owned forest and fields and lived by farming, and the house is said to have once doubled as a teahouse for travelers on an old road. The national database likewise calls the main house a "farmhouse and teahouse." Neither source says which road it served.

The Ueminami Family Residence spans two eras. The main house (mid-Edo period) and the gate (late Edo period) were both thatched when built. The main house had its roof frame heavily reworked and covered in tile in the late Meiji period, and the gate is thought to have been reroofed in tile within a decade of the end of the Second World War.

The other two buildings are postwar. A heigushi, the ceremonial wand set up at a ridge-raising, records that the Konashiya's ridgepole went up on March 5, 1957, and the Hiya is said to have been built at the same time. So two Shōwa buildings joined the Edo-period main house on its north side, and the four that stand today were complete.

The prefectural board also notes that the house is now used as a minpaku, a private guesthouse.

The four registered buildings

All four buildings of the Ueminami Family Residence were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 29, 2019, under the consecutive numbers 30-252 to 30-255. The main house was registered as a model of design; the Hiya, the Konashiya and the gate were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

• Main House: mid-Edo period, altered in the late Meiji period; 1 story, wood, tile roof; building area 110 square meters
• Nagayamon Gate: late Edo period, altered in the Shōwa 20s and the mid-Shōwa period; 1 story, wood, tile roof; building area 78 square meters
• Hiya (detached room): around 1957; 1 story, wood, tile roof; building area 57 square meters
• Konashiya (barn): 1957; 1 story, wood, tile roof; building area 28 square meters

Every building is single-story and roofed with Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the roofs follow the Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable form. The gate alone ends in a plain Kirizuma-zukuri gable at its east end.

The prefectural board finds that the two Edo buildings and the two Shōwa ones have all kept their traditional exteriors and give the hillside much of its character. It presents the Ueminami Family Residence as a clear record of how farm households in the mountains of the Kishi River basin arranged their homes.

Visiting the Ueminami Family Residence

The Ueminami Family Residence is privately owned and now runs as Kaze no Kominka Ueminami (風の古民家 うえみなみ), a guesthouse that takes one party at a time and lets them have the whole property. Its booking listing says guests may move freely through the buildings except for the kitchen. We found no arrangement for day visits, so an overnight stay is the way to see the zashiki rooms and the earth-floored spaces inside.

Please don't walk onto the grounds without a booking. No photography policy is published, so ask the hosts during your stay.

There is no railway station nearby, and the hosts ask guests to come by car. Their directions run like this: leave the Hanwa Expressway at Kainan-Higashi Interchange and follow National Route 370 toward Mount Kōya. Turn off at the sign for the Misato Observatory, drive past the road up to the observatory, and take the lane that doubles back uphill at the "Ueminami" sign. Mount Kōya is about 40 minutes away by car. A bus runs from JR Kainan Station, but only a few times a day.