About the Nozaki family
A private house of Takezaemon Nozaki who made a fortune in the salt industry
The Nozaki family is a mansion built one after another from Tenpo during the Kaei era by Takezaemon Nozaki, who made a fortune in the salt manufacturing industry and the development of Nitta.
The site area is about 3000 tsubo and the total floor area of the building is 1000 tsubo. When you enter the nagayamon, you will see a group of main tile-roofed houses with a dark green background lined up beautifully, and six dozos line up in a majestic manner. The garden of Omotesando is a dry landscape garden, and huge tread stones called Kago stones are arranged. In early summer, azalea flowers bloom and entertain the eyes of visitors.
As a whole, it is rare for a mansion to have such a building and garden preserved as it was built, and it can be said that it is a typical Oshoya architecture in Setouchi.
It became a historic site designated by Okayama Prefecture in 1977, was registered as a museum in 1995, and was designated as a national important cultural property building in 2006.
Learn about Buzaemon Nozaki
Buzaemon Nozaki
It is said that the Nozaki family, whose ancestor was Seiwa Genji, once named themselves Tada and Kunyono, and began to live in Mino-mura, Kojima-gun in the latter half of the 16th century.
Takezaemon invested the capital obtained from the manufacture and sale of tabi to build salt pans off the coast of Amino and Akasaki villages, and came to take the names of both villages and give their surnames Nozaki. The area of the salt farms it owns is about 161 hectares, and it grows into a large salt farm landowner. At the behest of the Okayama domain, the reclamation project of about 700 hectares of Fukuda Nitta will be successful. Takezaemon, who was set up by Oshoya for these achievements, left a "monkey" as a lesson in the hope of maintaining and prospering the Nozaki family.
Learn about Bukichiro Nozaki
Bukichiro Nozaki
(1848-1925)
Nozaki Bukichiro
Takeyoshiro, the grandson of Takezaemon, will expand the family business by innovating the salt manufacturing method, developing salt fields in Taiwan, and accumulating cultivated land. At its peak, it owned about 330 hectares of salt pans and about 600 hectares of fields. When he was elected as the first member of the House of Lords in Okayama Prefecture in 1890, he devoted himself to disaster countermeasures and the promulgation of a salt monopoly in the prefecture. In addition, respecting the lessons learned, we have produced many human resources such as Hara Busho, a Western-style painter, by donating to schools and charitable organizations and establishing the Nozaki Ikuei Scholarship.
News from Nozaki family
Determine the theme from things related to the Nozaki family, such as history, houses / gardens, calligraphy / furniture, etc.
The contents of the research conducted by the staff are summarized and posted. We also introduce what we learned from the special exhibition.
