Yamamoto Family Residence Retirement House

A Retirement House Painted in Red Earth

The Yamamoto Family Residence Retirement House (山本家住宅隠居所, Yamamoto-ke Jūtaku Inkyojo) is a single-storey timber house of 1937 at the Yamamoto family estate in Sakai, Kainan City, Wakayama Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 2, 2007. Its upper walls and gable ends are finished in red earth, giving it a color all its own.

According to the national database, the Yamamoto Family Residence Retirement House stands on a separate plot across a lane north of inner storehouse 2. An inkyojo is the house a head of family moves into after handing the business and main house to the next generation, and this one sits well away from the shop buildings on the road. Its north veranda connects by a corridor with the Akagura, and the Wakayama Association of Architects and Building Engineers notes that the old Nokami Railway line beyond it is now a walking path.

Deep Eaves and an L-Shaped Corridor

The house is five bays by four and a half, with a building area of 128 square meters, under an irimoya (hip-and-gable) roof of pan tiles. A gabled porch projects from the south front, and a tiled skirt roof wraps around the walls.

The front is built in the degeta manner, with the eave beam carried outward on brackets so the eaves reach far out. Inside, a central corridor turns a right angle as it runs through the house, linking four rooms including an eight-mat reception room.

Why It Was Registered

The Yamamoto Family Residence Retirement House was registered on October 2, 2007 (registration no. 30-0126) under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

The national database makes a point of the vivid red earth on the upper walls and gables. Because this 1937 house survives together with the Akagura on its own plot, away from the commercial buildings on the road, the estate records not only the family's business but the quieter life of a retired head of house. It rounds out, at the north edge of the property, the complete merchant setting that Wakayama Prefecture praises.

What to Look For

Color first. The narrow walls above the lintels and the triangular gables of the irimoya roof are coated in red earth, a warm red between dark timber and grey tile. Next to the white-plastered storehouses and the black-plastered main house, it hardly looks like part of the same estate.

On the south front, look at the gabled porch and the deep, bracketed eaves, which cast a band of shadow and give the one-storey front real weight. The red-painted Akagura at the end of the corridor to the north picks up the same color.

Seeing the Retirement House

The Yamamoto Family Residence Retirement House is a private home, and neither the interior nor the grounds are open. It may be visible from the lane beside inner storehouse 2 or from the walking path on its north side, but how much can be seen has not been confirmed. Please look only from public land and do not peer into the house. Directions are on the Yamamoto Family Residence page.