Yakage honjin

Yakage honjin as seen from the front.

• Japanese: 旧矢掛本陣石井家住宅 (Kyuu Yakage honjin Ishii ke juutaku)

Yakage honjin is a historical inn in Yakage, Okayama prefecture. It is one of the few surviving honjin in Japan open to the public as a historic house / museum.

Location and Layout

The honjin lies along the San'yôdô highway.

The compound is about 20 ken wide and covers an area of about 1,000 tsubo. It includes a number of structures and spaces. Those along the road include the main structure (omoya) and reception room (zashiki), and onarimon gate used exclusively by the local daimyô; storehouses for rice, kôji, and saké, as well as spaces for the saké brewing process, were located towards the rear of the compound, along with a guardhouse (bansho) and rear reception room (urazashiki) and nagaya. Some of the buildings are believed to date to the 1770s-1830s; most are believed to have retained the same form and appearance since at least the 1850s or 1860s.

The main house includes a shop section (commercial space), residential space, and kitchen, organized around a small tsubo niwa garden. This building seems to have been built in stages beginning in the 1850s and ending sometime in the early Meiji period (1868-1912); significant repairs took place in the 1920s, again in the 1940s or early 1950s, and most recently in 1985-91. The zashiki reception room was originally built in 1832 as a space five tatami mats in area, but was later expanded with additional rooms, first into a total of nine tatami, and then to twelve. The onarimon has a karahafu gate leading into a genkan entrance space.

History

The honjin was historically the home and business of the Ishii family. The family settled in the area in the 1620s, and from the mid-Edo period onwards the family head served as village headman (ôshôya). Additionally, beginning in the Genroku period, they operated a saké brewing business.

The compound was named an Important Cultural Property in 1968.

References

• Plaques on-site.[1]