The Kominka and its Merchant Owner Tokujiro Tange

Tokujiro Tange, the first owner of the old private townhouse, was born into the second generation of the Tange family, hailing from the neighboring town of Omi. Tokujiro is said to have made his fortune as a traditional Omi merchant, starting out as a money changer and pawnbroker, then working as a noodle manufacturer, a summer yarn dealer, and a kimono merchant, and eventually establishing a kimono wholesaler in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo.

The present land and the building that was originally on the site were purchased in 1862, and bestowed to Tokujiro in the year he turned just one years old. Tokujiro used the wealth he subsequently amassed as a merchant to purchase several more houses in the vicinity of the land, and he also erected a storehouse on the property and had a new main house constructed (the current house) to replace the one he inherited. The storehouse in the garden was completed in 1910 (Meiji 45) and the new main house in 1917 (Taisho 6), in the midst of modernization, and they have been part of the changing landscape of the Hikone castle town ever since.

Wanting to build a house that “will last over 100 years”, Tokujiro took his carpenter all the way to Gifu Prefecture to buy the highest quality lumber, spending about 29,000 JPY on the construction in total (nearly 93 million JPY in today’s money).

Now 100 years after construction, we will be happy if we can carve out a new history for the building in Tokujiro's memory, reinventing the house as a place where people can gather to feel peace and relaxation.