The Former Residence of Ito Hirobumi

The Former Residence of Ito Hirobumi is located in the city of Hagi in the northern part of Yamaguchi prefecture. This house is where Japan’s 1st prime minister Ito Hirobumi spent his youth. It is a small house of 95㎡; a simple one-story wooden house with a thatched roof.
The house originally belonged to Ito Naoemon, a lower-ranked samurai of Hagi, but Hirobumi’s family moved into the house when Hirobumi’s father Hayashi Juzo was adopted by the Ito family. Hirobumi lived in this house until 1868, while governing Hiroshima prefecture.
Next to the house is a life-sized Hagi ware pottery of Hirobumi, which reminding visitors of the old days.
Located nearby is Ito Hirobumi’s villa, a building that was originally in Tokyo but was later reconstructed in Hagi. The villa was constructed by the Meiji era’s temple carpenter, Ito Mansaku, and it features many interesting architectural designs, such as the single wooden board ceiling of the banquet hall and the joint ceiling of the detached room. You can visit these two buildings in one go.