Hometown!meetsRion’s Head Office is situated along the Kokubunji cliff line, a 30-kilometer terrace stretching from Tachikawa City to Ota Ward. These cliffs are adorned with abundant green-ery, providing a habitat for various wild birds and small animals. Since the Taisho period (1912–1926), many vacation homes for the wealthy have been built here, and villas were also built in Kokubunji City as well. With the development of an academic district around JR Kunitachi Station in the early Showa period (1926.1989), more villas and houses were built in the area. The Okimoto Residence, which we visited this time, is a registered tangible cultural property of Japan.The Okimoto Residence consists of two buildings, one Western style and the other Japa-nese style, with a connecting corridor between them. The main building, with its symbolic exte-rior silhouette, is a house built in the American colonial style. Once inside, you will find that the furniture was also made to match the building’s interior, all having a simple aesthetic yet made with attention given to the smallest detail. The chief characteristic of this building, however, is that it did not simply adopt Western designs in some parts—it was actually built based on West-ern architectural concepts. The reason why such a genuine Western-style building was built is because the owner, Kura Doi, and the designer, Shinobu Kawasaki, had both studied in the U.S., where they experienced living a western lifestyle and learned the architectural techniques. They did however make some adaptations to make it more compatible with the Japanese lifestyle, such as letting the front door open outward so that people could take off their shoes at the entrance.Four years after this Western-style house was built, its ownership was transferred to Itaru Okimoto, a man from the same prefecture as Mr. Doi. “It seems that the Okimoto family,” explains Tetsu Sakai, Architect, “who had no experience living abroad, found the Western-style house inconvenient, and thus, a Japanese-style house was added next door. The type of architecture of the Japanese-style building is known as ‘modern Japanese-style,’ a genre that came to be recognized and appreciated in the Heisei period (1989–2019). The Okimoto Residence is a masterpiece of modern Japanese-style architec-ture.” The style combining traditional Japanese techniques with modern materials and technolo-gies such as electricity, glass, and metalwork is a modern style, but one that retains the Japanese traditional aesthetic. While the Western-style building of the Okimoto Residence is simple as it was designed solely for residential use, the Japanese-style building is full of sumptuous eye-catching detail as it was designed to enter-tain guests.“The fact that two buildings, one built in a purely Western style and the other with a style having solid Japanese roots, constitute a single residence is the charm and value of the Okimoto Residence. Such architecture like this is rare,” comments Mr. Sakai.Currently, the ownership of the Okimoto Residence has been transferred from the daugh-ter of the Okimoto family to her neighbor, Ms. Narumi Kubo, who is struggling to preserve the residence by transforming the Western-style part into a café and the Japanese-style part into an event space for music concerts and exhibi-tions. While it must be no easy task to preserve and restore the large garden and the old, valu-able structures, she has managed to succeed this far thanks to the support of local residents and fans of the Okimoto Residence.It is quite fortunate for the Kokubunji community to have such a cultural property in which one can dine and appreciate art, and we cannot thank enough all those people who have worked endlessly to protect the Okimoto Resi-dence in the face of many challenges.I was amazed to find out such a place like this existed in Kokubunji. Touring through its rooms, we found a gramophone, old black telephone, and fireplaces all still in their original state. Both the Western and Japanese-style wings still bear the scars of the war, and being there made me feel as if I had traveled back in time. Many events must have taken place here over time. However, not only has it been preserved as a historical building, but it also continues to pro-vide opportunities for encounters and social exchange as both a café and a ven-ue for music concerts. I was profoundly moved when I physically touched the tangible items representing this heritage passed down through generations to the present day. (Yuki Okabe, RION Technical Journal Staff)This issue’s theme［The Cultural Assets That Must BeThe Okimoto Residence (Café Okimoto)The Okimoto Residence is a registered tangible cultural property whose construction dates back to 1933. It was renovated in 2020 and is now open to the public as Café Okimoto. The café's popular lunch menu features a dish made from locally grown vegetables sourced from Kokubunji, marketed under the brand name Kokuvege.Narumi Kubo, owner of Café OkimotoWhen becoming the owner of the Okimoto Residence, she learned of the building’s cultural value and felt it was her duty to pre-serve it. She then decided to turn it into a café as she remembered Ms. Okimoto, the previous owner, saying to her once, “it would be wonderful if we could open a café in this house.”Tetsu SakaiDirector of TownFactory First Class Architect OfficeBorn in 1970 in Hino, Tokyo. After completing a graduate course at Ut-sunomiya University, he worked at Kiichi Suzuki Architect Office before founding TownFactory First Class Ar-chitect Office in 2001. He is also ac-tive as a heritage manager in discovering features of local histori-cal and cultural heritage and pre-serving and utilizing them to help develop the community. He is cur-rently the author of a series of essays on architecture for the journal Tama no Ayumi (Tamashin Culture Foun-dation). He is a first-class architect and an architectural pathologist.Coordinated by Sanae TanahashiOUR FAVORITE TOWN, KOKUBUNJI—RION STAFF SHOW YOU AROUNDRion staff members visit people and places active in Kokubunji and rediscover the charms of Kokubunji. This time, we visited the Okimoto Residence, built in 1933 and designated a registered tangible cultural property of Japan in 2021.Behind a bamboo grove abruptly appearing amid a common residential district, we encounter something more than an old traditional house.After interview18High-quality Western and Japanese-style houses representing the precious heri-tage of early Showa period residential architecturePreserved and Passed On］RionKOKUBUNJI
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