Sugiura Family Residence Main House

What Is the Sugiura Family Residence Main House?

The Sugiura Family Residence Main House (杉浦家住宅主屋, Sugiura-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is the mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897) family home of a line of doctors in Saijo Shinden, Showa Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012. It stands at the very center of the Sugiura estate.

The house is built of wood, mostly on one level with a partial 2nd storey, and covers 168 square meters. Its roof is hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) and laid with interlocking pantiles (Sangawara-buki). It is the largest of the five registered buildings, and corridors running out from it reach the former clinic to the east and the yashikigura storehouse to the northwest.

Why It Was Registered

The Sugiura Family Residence Main House was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The first thing the Agency for Cultural Affairs points out is its height. Although most of the house is a single storey, the eaves sit high, and the upper floor has windows on 3 sides, a layout the Agency calls open in character.

Just as important is the way the Sugiura main house ties the estate together. Corridors and a projecting wing (Tsunoya) extend north and east, one to the yashikigura, the other to the clinic. Family rooms, storage and consulting rooms all hang off a single circulation route, and that plan only works with this house at its hub. Take the main house away, and the relationship between the other four buildings no longer makes sense.

What to Look For

The Formal Entrance with a Curved Gable

The south front is marked by a Shikidai entrance, a raised wooden step for receiving guests, sheltered by a karahafu, a gable whose bargeboards swell upward in the middle and flip out at the ends. Separate from the everyday door, it gives the house a formal face for visitors.

Lean-To and Veranda on the West

From the western half of the south front round to the west side, a lower lean-to roof (Geya) projects from the body of the house, sheltering a veranda that wraps the corner. The garden side is thereby opened up to the rooms inside. Seen from the southwest, the tall main roof and the low lean-to stack in two tiers.

An Upper Floor Open on Three Sides

The partial second storey has windows on 3 sides. That upper level, windowed on nearly every face and set above the broad single-storey spread, is the easiest way to pick out the Sugiura Family Residence Main House from a distance.

Visiting the Main House

As of March 2026, the Sugiura Family Residence Main House was closed to visitors while Showa Town carries out renovation work, and no completion date had been set (Yamanashi's official tourism site, article updated March 13, 2026).

Depending on how the work is progressing, part of the exterior may be visible from the garden. The curved-gable entrance faces south and the lean-to and veranda sit on the southwest corner, so if you can see the house at all, walk from the south of the garden round to the west. Scaffolding or screens may hide much of it, though, so if the main house is your reason for coming, phone the museum first (checked September 27, 2026).

Once the interior reopens, you should be able to trace from inside how the corridors lead off to the clinic and the storehouse.