Hagihara Family Residence West Zashiki

What Is the Hagihara Family Residence West Zashiki?

The Hagihara Family Residence West Zashiki (萩原家住宅西座敷) is a late Edo-period (1830–1868) residential wing in the old post town of Katsunuma-juku, Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2018.

Read Hagihara-ke jūtaku nishi zashiki, the name refers to the zashiki, the formal tatami rooms used to receive guests. The single-story wing is joined to the back of the West Shop and cannot be seen from the old Koshu Kaido. Where the shop at the front handled business, this rear wing held the family's living room and its formal rooms.

A Central Passage and Two Differently Finished Rooms

The West Zashiki is a single-story timber building under a tiled Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof running east to west, with a building area of 128 m². Both gable ends are sealed in white Shikkui plaster.

A beaten-earth passage runs through the middle of the building. To its east is a living room, and to its west two zashiki rooms sit side by side. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points out that each of these rooms is finished with different fittings and details, and sees in them the way of life of an early modern merchant household. Two neighboring rooms in the same wing were deliberately given different characters.

At the rear, a room called the kujō-no-ma projects toward the West Storehouse at the south end of the lot. The buildings of the former West Yashiki thus run in a single line from the street to the back: West Shop, West Zashiki, kujō-no-ma and West Storehouse.

Date and Reasons for Registration

The Agency dates the Hagihara Family Residence West Zashiki to the late Edo period. Koshu City believes that, like the East Shop and Main House and the West Shop, it was standing by 1881 at the latest, the year Hagihara Gensuke bought the eastern lot. The western lot on which it stands was purchased by the family afterward.

It was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. Although hidden from the highway, the West Zashiki links the shop at the front with the storehouse parlor at the back, showing how post-town merchants extended their houses deep into narrow lots.

Visiting the West Zashiki

The Hagihara Family Residence West Zashiki lies in the private rear of the property and is not open to the public. Because it stands behind the West Shop, it cannot be seen from the old Koshu Kaido either. Its rooms have only been viewable during rare openings hosted by the owners.

From the street, find the West Shop and picture the line of buildings behind it, with the West Zashiki and then the West Storehouse further back. Entry to the grounds and photography of the wing are not possible.