Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters

About the Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters (山内家住宅女衆部屋, Yamanouchi-ke Jūtaku Onnashu-beya) is a single-storey staff lodging built around 1931 in Sakaemachi, Hofu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on April 25, 2014. It stands on the north side of the Yamanouchi Family Residence and housed the family's female servants.

The building is a small row house of 3 by 1 and a half bays (Ken), with a gabled roof of interlocking pantiles and a building area of 18 square metres. The barn is joined to its east end. Paired with the menservants' quarters on the east side, the Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters shows that the household provided separate lodgings for men and women.

Why It Was Registered

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters was registered as No. 35-0090 under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as an ancillary building within the residence.

Its contribution to the streetscape comes from where it sits. The Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters runs along the north boundary and, together with the barn, doubles as the boundary wall. From the road, its board-clad back is simply part of the estate's perimeter, continuing the line of the brick wall to the west.

What to Look For

Inside, the Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters consists of two Tatami rooms of 4 and a half mats each, side by side, entered from the south. The entrance faces into the grounds; the street side has no door at all. As with the men's building, staff movements stayed inside the estate.

The ceiling is a batten ceiling (Saobuchi-tenjō), but the battens change direction between the north half and the south half. It is a small building to go to that trouble, and the Agency's description makes a point of recording it.

Outside, the walls are clad in vertical boards. On the north front they add a third material to the brick of the wall and the white plaster of the storehouse.

Visiting

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Maidservants' Quarters is part of a private home and is not open inside (checked September 26, 2026). We found no opportunity to see the ceiling or rooms.

From the north street you can see the board-clad back wall. The entrance is on the south side, inside the grounds. Because this wall doubles as the boundary, it is right at the roadside; stand across the street rather than up against it.