Former Sawahara family residence

From the beginning of the 19th century, the Sawahara family served as village headmen of Shoyamada village (a village when Kure city was established) and as village headmen for nine villages in the Aki district of Uragumi. They began living in their current location in 1729, and the main house that remains today was rebuilt in 1756 with a tiled roof. In 1805, a new front room was built as a resting place and lodging for the lord of Hiroshima for inspections, and a front gate (Onarimon) was also constructed. The following year (1806), the lord of Hiroshima (Asano Narikata) rested here, and there are records of other lords and others staying and resting here. The thinker Utsunomiya Mokurin, who lived from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era, stayed here in his later years and died here in 1897 at the age of 74. The front storehouse (Mitsugura) facing the old Naganoki Highway was built in 1809. Towards the end of the Meiji period, the interior garden was renovated, the second floor was remodeled, and the room was converted into a Western-style room. Furthermore, many other renovations were carried out, including the rebuilding of the new storehouse and the expansion of the second floor. Furthermore, the sake brewing facilities (storehouses) that had been used for sake brewing for a long time were all demolished in 1949, and trees were planted on the site. The former Sawahara family residence has been preserved while being used from the mid-Edo period to the present day, and is extremely valuable as a historical building with the history of modernization in the history of life and culture engraved into the building.