Uto Family Residence

What Is the Uto Family Residence?

The Uto Family Residence (宇藤家住宅, also written Utō) is a farmstead of the early Meiji to Taisho periods in Hoshiya, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture, whose main house, nagayamon gate, barn and gate were each registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 8, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The place name 布施屋 is read Hoshiya.

Wakayama Prefecture describes the Uto Family Residence as a farmhouse compound in the Hoshiya district on the eastern side of the city: the main house sits at the centre, a nagayamon gate opens on the south front, a barn joins the gate on its east side, and earthen walls enclose the whole. The prefecture values it as a well-kept example of the traditional layout of a farmstead on the outskirts of the city. The owner is a private individual (Wakayama Prefecture).

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The 4 registered parts of the Uto Family Residence divide the work of a single walled plot. The main house, of the early Meiji period, stands in the middle and faces south; the Agency for Cultural Affairs records an extension in the early Taisho period and a renovation in 2000.

Along the south side runs the nagayamon, a long gatehouse of the Taisho period, and at its east end the early Meiji barn meets it at a right angle and closes the east side of the plot. Each is 20 metres long. The Agency notes that the two together give the farmstead its solid street front.

On the west side a small Taisho-period gate opens in the middle of the wall, facing the garden west of the main house. According to the Agency, it forms part of the view of the compound from the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage road. The prefecture calls the wall an earthen wall (dobei), the Agency a tsuijibei. Each building has its own page with the details.

Hoshiya and the Kiiji Route of the Kumano Kodo

Hoshiya, where the Uto Family Residence stands, lies on the Kiiji, the route that leads towards the pilgrimage roads of the three Kumano shrines. A Wakayama City notice says the Kiiji has 9 sites of former oji shrines within the city, and in November 2024 the city ran a guided walk with a curator along the Kiiji between Hoshiya and Idakiso. The meeting point was Hoshiya Station on the JR Wakayama Line.

Visiting and Access

The Uto Family Residence is a private home, and no official information on open days or visits was found. Visitors can look at it only from outside: the nagayamon gate and barn on the south, the wall and gate on the west. Please stay off the property and take photographs with the residents in mind.

The nearest station is Hoshiya on the JR Wakayama Line. The Uto Family Residence is about 300 metres east-southeast of the station in a straight line (calculated from the coordinates in the Agency database and those of the station; the walk is longer).