A Doctor's Family Home South of Kofu
The Sakurabayashi Family Residence (櫻林家住宅, Sakurabayashi-ke Jūtaku) is the compound of a family of physicians in Miyaharacho, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, where five buildings led by an inner reception wing built in 1912 were listed together as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 7 August 2023. The address is 1299 Miyaharacho, on the east bank of the Kamata River as it runs south across the Kofu Basin.
When the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended the buildings for registration, its summary described the Sakurabayashi as an old family that had practised medicine since the Edo period in a village on the southern outskirts of the Kofu castle town. They were country doctors rather than town physicians, working from a rural homestead outside the old urban core. The national database confirms that part of the gatehouse on the south side of the property once served as the consulting rooms.
The Sakurabayashi Family Residence is still a private home. The five registered structures are the inner reception wing (okuzashiki), the west and east document storehouses, a combined rice and tool storehouse, and a nagayamon gatehouse, each with its own registration number.
Five Buildings, Two Registration Criteria
The buildings span several generations. The oldest is the East Document Storehouse, which dates to the late Edo period. The nagayamon followed in 1905, the rice and tool storehouse in the later Meiji era, and the inner reception wing and West Document Storehouse around 1912. Extensions were added to the reception wing and the east storehouse around 1967, and the gatehouse was renovated in 2002.
The Council recommended the group on 17 March 2023, and registration took effect with the official notice of 7 August 2023. The registration numbers run consecutively, 19-0167 through 19-0171.
Two different criteria were applied. Only the inner reception wing was listed as a building that serves as a model of design; the other four were listed for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, the reception wing was judged on its own craftsmanship as a refined example of modern Japanese-style architecture, while the gate and storehouses were valued as the pieces that give the homestead its shape. The Council's summary singles out the zelkova gate doors, each panel cut from a single board, as part of what gives the Sakurabayashi Family Residence the dignified frontage of a doctor's house.
How the Sakurabayashi Compound Is Laid Out
The descriptions in the national database make the plan easy to reconstruct. The nagayamon opens on the south edge of the lot, with its passage set toward the east. Beyond it, near the middle of the property, stands the two-storey inner reception wing. The West Document Storehouse is attached to its west side and the East Document Storehouse to its north. Further north again, the long rice and tool storehouse closes off the back of the compound.
All five registered buildings fall within about 50 metres of one another. The sequence is a familiar one for a Japanese rural homestead: gate to the south, formal rooms in the centre, storehouses behind and beside them, with each step inward becoming more private. That two of the three storehouses connect directly to the reception wing suggests a household that kept its valuables within arm's reach of its best rooms.
The construction and details of each building are covered on the individual pages.
Visiting the Sakurabayashi Family Residence
The Sakurabayashi Family Residence is a private house and is not open to the public. As of 27 September 2026, neither Kofu City nor Yamanashi Prefecture listed any open days in their cultural property guides. Visitors cannot enter the grounds and should limit themselves to looking from the public road.
The part most easily seen from outside is the street front of the nagayamon on the south side. There is no published policy on photography; if you take pictures from the road, keep clear of the entrance and be mindful of the family and neighbours.
The house lies roughly 6 kilometres south-southwest of Kofu Station in a straight line. Public sources give no information about visitor parking or signage.
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties: Sakurabayashi Family Residence Inner Room (櫻林家住宅奥座敷)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014598
- Database of National Cultural Properties: West Document Storehouse (櫻林家住宅西文庫蔵)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014599
- Database of National Cultural Properties: East Document Storehouse (櫻林家住宅東文庫蔵)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014600
- Database of National Cultural Properties: Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse (櫻林家住宅米蔵及び道具蔵)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014601
- Database of National Cultural Properties: Nagayamon Gate (櫻林家住宅長屋門)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00014602
- Agency for Cultural Affairs press release: Council for Cultural Affairs report on new registrations, 17 March 2023
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/koho_hodo_oshirase/hodohappyo/93849401.html
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: list of buildings recommended for registration, 17 March 2023 (PDF, Japanese)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/koho_hodo_oshirase/hodohappyo/pdf/93849401_03.pdf
- Yamanashi Prefecture: designated and registered cultural properties by municipality (Japanese)
- https://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/bunka/bunkazaihogo/bunkazaiguide_shichosonbetsu_bunkazailist.html
Last verified: 2026.09.26
Basic Information
| Name | Sakurabayashi Family Residence |
|---|---|
| Location | 1299 Miyaharacho, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (5) |
| Coordinates | 35.61306, 138.55824 |
