The Oi Family Residence

overview

The Oi family of Tachimachi, Yashima Town has been engaged in the sake brewing business since the Horyaku era (1750s) of the mid-Edo period, and is an old family that was also involved in clan finances.
Notably, during the Tenpo famine, the Oi family was at the forefront of negotiations with the Sakata Honma family to borrow money as part of the clan’s efforts to rebuild its ailing finances.
Later, during the Great War, the family invested its own money to establish and operate a day-care center to ease the burden on mothers who were sent to the front to compensate for the lack of male labor. This was the forerunner of today’s Yashima Nursery School.
After the war, when times changed, the family produced a member of the House of Representatives and the mayor of Yashima Town from among its members.
The main house, completed in 1916 (Taisho 5), features two different styles: the machiya (traditional wooden townhouse) style on the left side and the samurai style on the right side.
The main materials used are local zelkova for the pillars, beams, and floors, and ebony and ironwood for elements such as the alcove posts. These are the finest materials available, and are a distinctive feature of this house.
The present building was on the verge of abandonment due to the absence of an owner for more than 20 years from 1973 to 1998, but as a result of restoration efforts over the same period, it has been restored to almost the same condition as when it was first built. As a modern merchant house, it was designated as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2004.
The house is used as a living place all year round, so please understand that we are unable to open the interior of the house to the public.