The Huntington's Japanese Heritage Shōya House — Attraction in San Marino

Interpretive sign inscriptions: Welcome to the Shōya House, where the heads of a village in Marugame, Japan, lived for nearly 300 years. This house was at the center of village life during the Edo period (1603-1867). Local farmers went there to pay taxes, attend festivals and religious ceremonies, and more. Today, the house is again surrounded by agricultural fields and a garden. It reminds us of the importance of living sustainably with nature. The Huntington moved the Shoya House from Marugame to San Marino over a seven-year period.

A Protective Gatehouse: Solid walls surrounded the Shoya House. Most local residents lived outside the gate, but they passed through it for community gatherings or for business dealings with the shoya (head of the village). The gatekeeper lived in one of the rooms built into the structure. Servants and horses occupied the other spaces. The wooden gates were locked at night for privacy and could shield residents if the village came...

Highlight of the trip was certainly the older lady who painted a very humorous yet informative picture of the purposeful design characteristics of the bathroom. I do wish more of the private quarters were explorable. You can peer into them but they're mostly hidden behind walls and inaccesible to their (non-complaint, dangerous 😱) design (raised up on stilts as was standard at the time to allow water to flow...

The Huntington docent was very knowledgeable when she spoke about the 18th-century life of this center-of-attention house. It took seven years for Henry Huntington to transport the house from Japan to San Marino. Simple but...