Wakabayashi Residence

Background

The oldest and most well preserved house in Murakami, the Wakabayashi Residence is an Important Cultural Property. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of it, but there is also a very interesting small nagayamon gate with a thick thatch roof too. A photo of it can be seen on this site: http://www.niitabi.com/murakami/wakabayasi/01syasin.html

Gallery

Wakabayashi House

House

House and garden

Garden

House

Wakabayashi Residence Profile
English Name	Wakabayashi Residence
Japanese Name	若林家住宅
Year	late 1700s to 1800
Residence Type	Middle Class
Designations	Important Cultural Property
Features	Gates, Garden, House
Visitor Information	open 9-16:30, closed Dec 29 - Jan 4; 200 yen
Website	http://www.city.murakami.lg.jp/site/kanko/wakabayashike.html
Location	Murakami, Niigata Prefecture
Castle	Murakami Castle
Coordinates	38° 13' 34.14" N, 139° 28' 51.82" E
Murakami Castle and nearby Samurai Homes
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Visits	October 9, 2011
Added Jcastle	2018

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ARTShogun

55 months ago

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若林武家屋敷　［村上］　Wakabayashi-Bukeyashiki (Murakami)

The Wakabayashi-Bukeyashiki in Murakami is a middle-class samurai home built in 1787. The patriarch earned 150石. The hanging fish over the veranda are a local speciality. The guide was a very gracious host and served soup with wasabi from the hearth. This home features an intriguing hiding space behind a false wall. In the guest room, the most lavish room in any samurai residence, the tokonoma (alcove) is located. In the Wakabayashi house the tokonoma is unusually narrow, in fact I would say that it is only half the width of most Tokonoma. This is true for both the right and left alcoves. The reason is that there is a fake wall behind the hanging scroll. It is accessed by a slim, secret panel which can be pulled back on the veranda. Behind is a sort of vertical crawl space used for hiding inside in the event that the home ever came under attack during the localised political struggles of the Edo period which sometimes turned very violent. My guide showed me this hiding place and then took from it a weapon. I said, "you have a bokutou" and he said, "it's not a bokutou," and unsheathed an actual sword - the saya and tsuka looked just like a bokken and there was no tsuba - so it was quite the surprise. He then demonstrated how a samurai may discover this hiding place and, lifting up the hanging scroll, stab through the fake wall to get at anybody hiding behind it. There was much drama and flourish here, and he afterward performed a very smart chiburi. I guess in his demonstration the hiding space didn't work for the occupants, but it certainly fooled me.

The narrow candle on a stick in the guest room was lit between visitor and the home owner at night. This created a light between them so they could see the space between themselves and each other, although sometimes you couldn't even see each other. Candles were not cheap and so most meetings at night would've been very dark with one candle. Generally these samurai homes are very dark and the interiors are gloomy even in the day, especially when you want to shut out the cold.

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