Yamamoto Family Residence Main House

A Merchant House That Grew Upward

The Yamamoto Family Residence Main House (山本家住宅主屋, Yamamoto-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a merchant house in Sakai, Kainan City, Wakayama Prefecture, whose late-Edo living quarters were joined in 1906 by a three-storey reception wing, and which was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 2, 2007. It is the head office of Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten, a dealer in hemp-palm goods and medicinal herbs.

According to the national database, the Yamamoto Family Residence Main House stands east of the office, set a little back from National Route 370. It is the center of the estate, with the stone wall and gate in front and the inner storehouses behind.

Two Eras, One Roofline

The house comes in two parts. The west half, the living quarters, is late Edo (1830 to 1867): a timber building with a low Tsushi-nikai loft storey under a gabled roof entered on the long side. The loft was a low-ceilinged storage level, and the roof, including the lean-to eaves, is laid in heavy hongawara tiles.

In 1906 a reception wing was added to the east, three storeys high under a hipped roof of lighter pan tiles. The third-floor room is ringed by a veranda with a railing. The whole house covers a building area of 177 square meters.

The walls are finished in black plaster in the Shinkabe manner, with the posts left exposed. Because the low gabled living quarters sit shoulder to shoulder with the tall hipped reception wing, the roofline jumps sharply. The national database singles out this varied roof composition.

Why It Was Registered

The Yamamoto Family Residence Main House was registered on October 2, 2007 (registration no. 30-0123) under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

Wakayama Prefecture points out that the 1906 reception wing was an unusual three storeys for its day, that details such as the transoms and sliding-door pulls were designed with care, and that the roof carries end tiles shaped like hemp-palm leaves. A family that made its fortune in shuro put the plant on its roof. The way a successful Meiji merchant grafted a showpiece wing onto a late-Edo townhouse is itself a record of the family's rise.

What to Look For

From outside, look at the roofs. From the road, the low hongawara gable gives way to the pan-tiled hipped roof climbing three storeys behind it. See if you can pick out the hemp-palm leaves on the end tiles.

The interior is private, but a visit report published in 2012 by the Wakayama Association of Architects and Building Engineers gives a sense of it. The glass doors of the reception wing's outer corridor still hold original, slightly wavy glass. Above the lintel of the room off the entrance hall sit six lantern boxes marked with the Kaneichi crest, packed with lanterns and candles to grab in case of fire. There is a many-drawered medicine chest that once held herbs, and the third floor has wooden storm shutters but no glass, so opening them lets the wind through from every side.

Seeing the Main House

The Yamamoto Family Residence Main House is a private home, and the interior is not open. What you can see is the exterior from public roads: the roofline and black walls, viewed across the stone wall and gate, since the house sits back from the road. Directions are on the Yamamoto Family Residence page.