Site Map

Main Building

The residence is a modest Japanese-style thatched house. The west wing has a stone step to take off shoes (similar to a mudroom), the front welcoming space, a 6 tatami mat room, and another 6 tatami room with 3 different elevated floor levels. There is a connecting hallway to the Western decorated rooms that include the kitchen. On the south side is an engawa (house-side) garden area.

‘Taigaku Bunko’ (Iwakura museum)
Designated as a national cultural heritage site in 2007

This small concrete building was built in 1928 as a museum and storage for important documents and artifacts of Tomomi Iwakura, including relevant materials on the Meiji Restoration. The architecture was by Goichi Takeda (also a professor at Kyoto University), a prominent architect at that time, who also designed the Kyoto City Hall (main building). Several of the artifact pieces related to Tomomi Iwakura that are designated as a national important cultural properties or designated as a Kyoto city important cultural tangible properties are not stored here but are kept at the Kyoto City Library of Historical Documents (Teramachi, Marutamachi, Kamigyo-ku.  TEL: 075-241-4312).

‘Ihatsuhi’
Memorial monument containing Tomomi Iwakura’s hair

This memorial monument is located on the east side of the Main Building. It contains a lock of hair from Tomomi Iwakura and also includes a memorial of his wife, Makiko. The two are enshrined with their son, Tomosada’s memorial on the north side.