Nakano Family Residence (Utsui, Shimonoseki)

About the Nakano Family Residence (Utsui, Shimonoseki)

The Nakano Family Residence (Utsui, Shimonoseki) is a farming homestead in Utsui-kami, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, whose main house, barn, storehouse, earthen wall and stone wall, built between the mid-Edo period and the Taisho era, were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on November 29, 2006.

Utsui (内日) is a basin of rice fields near the geographic centre of Shimonoseki, enclosed by a ring of low mountains including Onigajo. The city describes it as a district where more than half of the households farm, with the Tabe River running through the middle. The Nakano homestead stands toward the north of the basin, at the eastern foot of one of those mountains.

The five registered items span roughly two centuries. The oldest is the barn, dated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to the mid-Edo period, a window from 1661 to 1750. The main house and the stone wall are late Edo, the earthen wall is Meiji-era, and the two-storey storehouse is Taisho-era. What was registered, in other words, is the slow accumulation of one family's farmyard.

No owner is listed in the national database, which is normal for a house still lived in by a private family.

Layout of the Homestead

The property faces east. A stone retaining wall runs along the eastern edge, and toward its northern end it lines both sides of the lane that climbs up into the yard. At the top of the lane a forecourt opens in front of the main house.

The main house stands a little west of the centre of the plot, facing east. From the middle of its east side an earthen wall runs out eastward, separating the forecourt from a garden to the south. The long barn sits north of the main house, and the small white storehouse stands to the southeast.

Seen from outside, the best way to read the place is in that order: stone wall, lane, earthen wall, main house. The storehouse is the piece you notice from a distance; the Agency's own description calls it the accent of the distant view of the homestead.

Visiting and Getting There

The Nakano Family Residence (Utsui, Shimonoseki) is a private home and is not open to the public. As of September 2026 we could find no announcement of regular or special openings. Please stay on the public road, do not enter the lane or the yard, and keep residents and their vehicles out of any photographs.

The address is 2777 Utsui-kami, Shimonoseki. The homestead lies about 10 kilometres north, in a straight line, of Shin-Shimonoseki Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen, and a car is the practical way to reach the Utsui basin. There is no visitor parking, so avoid stopping on farm roads or in front of neighbouring houses.

The Five Registered Items

• Main House: late Edo period, single-storey timber house with a thatched roof under temporary sheet metal. Registration no. 35-0050
• Barn: mid-Edo period, single-storey timber building with a thatched roof under temporary sheet metal. Registration no. 35-0051
• Storehouse: Taisho era, two-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof. Registration no. 35-0052
• Wall: Meiji era, tiled earthen wall. Registration no. 35-0053
• Stone Wall: late Edo period, stone retaining wall. Registration no. 35-0054

All five were registered under the same criterion, contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The value lies less in any single building than in the ensemble: two thatched farm buildings, a white storehouse, and the stone and earthen walls that give a mountain farmstead its formal front.