October 2004

Martin St-Pierre

Just east of Wakayama city and south of the Kinokawa river, in the Wasa area, is an old historic house, formerly owned by the Nakasuji family, undergoing repair.

The Nakasuji family was a rich and influential administrator of tax revenue and rice cultivation for the lord. In the Edo period, rice was the prime means by which lords could collect tax from farmers. One koku or rice, 187.5 kg unmilled or 136.5 kg milled, equaled the amount one person was allowed to eat in a year. That amounts to just over 373 grams of rice a day. Rice tax rates varied from province (han) to province and taxes were levied on villages, not individuals. That is why every village, town or area had a powerful farming family to administer tax collection and oversee the growing of rice. The head of the household in some of these families were permitted to have surnames and even carry swords. This was the case for the Nakasuji family.

The Nakasuji House, built along the ancient road to Kumano from Kyoto, functions not only as a storage facility but also as a place where guests, important or not, could meet. Therefore, it has numerous rice storage houses, a large garden, living space for servants, and a rare third-floor room. It also had a misobeya, or small place or room outside to make miso. One of the most interesting features of this house is the separate entrances for dignitaries and peasants. The main portion of the house has a large doma, padded earth floor, and slightly higher ceilings than usual in some places. Nakasuji House is now undergoing extensive repairs and reconstruction. Work started four years ago and is scheduled to finish in another four. Carpenters are hard at work replacing rotten beams and reusing old timber whenever possible. The work is a comprehensive overhaul of this architecturally precious home just a few kilometers east of Wakayama city.

In a country where most wooden structures being preserved and repaired are either shrines or temples, finding homes architecturally or historically significant to the point of spending hundreds of millions of yen for the sake of not loosing cultural assets is rare. Wakayama has precious few of these types of homes and the various levels of government pitching in for this project should be congratulated for having the foresight to ensure that the Nakasuji house remain erect and intact for future generations.

Posted on October 2004 in the following categories: Places