A Traditional-Modern House entering into the old Castle Town
-Asano House in Old YOSHIOKA Post Town-Kuniaki ITO1, Ryota SHIMIZU2, Yasuo NAGAI3, Junichiro MATSUMOTO4
1 Architect & Professor Emeritus of TOHOKU University
2Structural Designer, TIS & Partners
3Professor, Faculty of Regional Education & Culture, YAMAGATA University
4Head of MATSUMOTO Architectural Design Office

Abstract
The ASANO House Complex was once composed of the main dwelling, sake shop, some traditional storage
houses, brewery, koji house (malted rice house for Sake brewery) and etc. for more than 100 years. After the big
fire in 1880 which swept away almost of all castle town, Yoshioka town, these buildings were continuously
rebuilt and maintained through 7 generations. But by the earthquake of March 11, 2011, the main dwelling andother houses were largely damaged. As a result, the ASANO family decided that the dwelling part should berebuilt. Now new dwelling was rebuilt in 2014 and the family people look like restoring their peaceful lives
Japanese traditional houses used to have wide openings to south or east to take the sunshine into the inside ofhouses and assure the views from the inside. This character of Japanese traditional house has caused thedangerous structural eccentric placement of bearing walls. But we intended not only to take over the old castle
town context to enter into this traditional precinct but also to newly create transparency between interiors and thegarden, using cutting edge engineering skills, including the highly precise structure of laminated wood memberswith metal joints mainly.
Keywords: merchant house, sake brewery, laminated lumber, traditional detailing, eccentric structure

1. Introduction
Asano House is located at 80, Aza-Kamimachi,Yoshioka, Taiwa-tyo, Miyagi Prefecture. The present
head of this family, Mr. Hajimu Asano is a man of theseventh generation since the early 19 century and thepresent mayor of this town. Furthermore, this goodfamily produced two other mayors of this town. In thebeginning, this family had dealt in malted rice, thenchanged into brewery industry.
After the Second World War, they enlarged businessto rice-collection industry.
The site is located at the south side of the historicalmain road. In the old discrict of this town, the typicalroad frontage for the unit of marchant house is narrow,about 10.8m, but the depth is almost more than 63m.
The site of Asano House consists of two units
including main house, Sake shop, sake-brewery,rice-malted house(eliminated after March 11th, 2011
East Japan Big Earthquake), two storage made by mud
and timber-KURA-and small shrines.
In 1896, the central zone of this town was swept
away by the big fire and the family members havecontinued to rebuild and add new facilities for morethan one hundred years.

Fig. 1. A broken mud storage and the court gaden

Contact: Kuniaki ITO, Architect & Prof. Emeritusof TOHOKU University
1-1-7, Kurosuna, Inageku, Chiba-City, Japan
Tel: 043-247-8168 Fax: 043-247-8101
e-mail: kuniaki1114ito@gmail.com

Fig. 2. The front elevation facing to the main street
1site is like a long, narrow card and the old house wasbuilt being restricted by its shape. In the case of theold Asano House, its interior space consisted of threeparts.

Fig. 3. Looking upwards in the lobby

Fig. 5. The site plan of Asano House

2. Methods

Fig. 6. First floor plan of Asano House
Fig. 4. A map showing the old town planning
Table 1. Fundamental Data of Asano House
Objective site area
Total floor area
Objective floor area

1446.81m2
604.66m2
209.80m2

2. Disposition of New Asano House
Once Yoshioka Post Town was ruled by an oldfeudal lord, Tadaki clan who was one of the importantretainers of its master, DATE clan. Yoshioka Post
Town has the character of castle town in the feudal
age-Edo era-as well. Though DATE clan made about
20 first-class castle towns(Yougai) and a little bit
small-size castle towns(Tokoro) which were thealmost same number as Yougai, in its territory. This
territory was almost the same area of present Miyagi
Prefecture. These castle towns have the resemble city
plan. That is,in the center of town, there was a lord housesurroundedby Samurai retainers and along the old main street
there were merchant houses on both sides. Both areas
were distinguished clearly but they complementedmutually.
We intended to enter this new Asano House into thecontext of castle town mentioned above. The typical

car portFig. 7. Y4 section of Asano House
The front space of the ground floor to the street was
an office converted from a shop and directly on thisspace there was a room with low-height ceiling. The
middle space was a wide living space once having asunken hearth. The recessed part was a tatami roomand water section. In the new Asano House, thisconcept of composition is fundamentally followed
making three bed rooms on the second floor. In themiddle zone, relatively large atrium was located toconnect all parts of this house. The recessed part is atatami room like the old one where the guests andfamily members can look around the garden andfacilities of the premises.
A southern half part of this site is inclined to thesouth direction, as a result, this site offers good
exposure to the sun and well looking prospect to thishouse.
This site has two access points. One is from thenorthern main street and the other is from southern
narrow back alley which is flanked by the northern
housing site and the southern rice collecting zone
which are owned the same proprietor.

Fig. 10. Entrance hallFig. 11. Board for changing
foot wear

Fig. 12. Iron handrail

Fig.13. Rotten place repaired

Fig. 8. Looking at the terrace and broken mud house

Fig. 9. Step to the moon watching terrace
Fig. 14. Looking down the lobby
They were carefully handled through the lumberingand joint processing. All joint processing of thosewooden members were done in the factory of Marusan
Industry, Fukushima Pref. which is located along theTohoku High-Way which connects both sites in theshortest distance.
At the south-end of the house, the moon watchingterrace is designed which is the traditional attachment
for connecting the inner space and the garden since
Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto. Material of terrace
floor is Aomori-hiba which is used for the places
being wet like the bath room or Nure-en(openverandah) in spite of its high cost.
The structural system is the post and beam half
rigid frame with structural plywood detailed within
the depth of column thickness. Japanese people has
liked them as their faces appear in bare condition toappreciate their grains. Not only because of viewing
their natural faces but because of preventing themfrom rot by exposing them to the air, this style has
been kept for a long time.
On the contrary, the commercial housing of recent
age has become the one like the large refrigerator withroof. We intended that this house could survive down
the road more than 100 years against this recent
trends.

3. Design of Asano House
Once there were two types of modular-coordination
system in Japan. One is the double grid system called
Kyo-Ma which has been used in the western part ofJapan. The other is Inaka-Ma or Edo-Ma which has
been used mainly in the eastern part of Japan. The
basic module was 3 shaku (about 909mm) and thisdimension is the fundamental size of commodities forbuilding materials like the width of wall panels or thelength of flooring planks. We used 910mm module as
the basic module according to the old house and set
the single reference lines with 12cm columns onthemselves.
Main structural wooden members are the laminatedwood of larch with metal joints almost hidden in thebeams and columns. Minimum appearance of them
are black colored to make accents in the structure.
Another wooden members are the reused zelkova
trees from the old Asano House. They are used for thespatial attractive points of the upwardness of atrium.
The third one is the old zelkova tree member whichwere dried in the well ventilated condition of rice-collecting area. They were laid under the roof for
more than 60 years for their ancestors to prepare forthe next generations.

3Fig. 19. Topping beam ceremony F.20. Scattering rice cakeFig.15. Detailing of the same surface finishing

keepFig. 16. South side view with the suspended corner column

Fig. 17. Sectional shape of hip rafterFig. 18. Rea r side of hipped roof

In this area, the special ceremony for thecelebration of framework completion still remains
lively. After a Shinto priest prayed for the safety of
construction left, a lot of rice cakes are scatterd to theneighbors who believe these rice cakes could convey
good fortune in the future.
4. Conclusion
To keep the atmosphere of traditional district, it isneeded for the dwellers to prepare themselves toinvest their money in improving their own
circumstances.
Different from the new town, traditional districts
hold a lot of continuous families which may be morethan three generations. Their minds of loving home
town are praised and should be kept through all kindsof help.
5.Acknowledgement
First of all, we must thank for the collaboration of Mr.
Hajimu ASANO, Mrs.Emiko ASANO and Yuko
ASANO. They were kind of victims of May 11, 2011
Big Earthquake. After that earthquake, they weresqueezed into a narrow space enduring inconvenientdaily life until the completion of the new house..
Next, we have to say gratitude to a lot of persons
concerned in the site, above all, the director of Atlier
UMI Co.,Ltd, Kimikichi SASAKI. Master Carpenter,
Isao OKUMURA showed his skill as a carpenter
specializing in building shrines and temples. Mr.
JuetsuTAKAHASHI,
mechanicalengineer,
contributed to integrate the inner spaces without anytroubles.
And we can not forget the high quality of fixtures. Theability of Mr. Atsushi TAKAHIRA exceeds otherartisan far and away showing the skill admitted by theminister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
6. References
1) The Kanegasaki Town Board of Education (1997.3), Report ofTraditional Buildings Preservation District [The Castle Town ofOld Date Clan-KANAGASAKI-] Kuniaki ITO Lab., Dept. ofArchitecture, Tohoku Univ.
2) The Hirosaki City Board of Education (2002.3), Surveillance
Report of Important Traditional Buildings Preservation District[ Nakatyo,Hirosaki-City] Kuniaki ITO Lab., Dept. ofArchitecture, Tohoku Univ.
3) The Zuiganji Temple, Preservation and Repairing Construction
Report of General Gate (2004.3) Kuniaki ITO
Lab.,Dept. of Architecture, Tohoku Univ.