The residence of the Kuroda family located in Shimo-Hirakawa, Kikugawa City, Shizuoka Pref. is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. The Kuroda family was a warrior clan descended from the Genji (Minamoto) line. In the Eiroku era (1558-1570), Kuroda Yoshiie moved to the village of Shimo-Hirakawa in Enshu province (present-day Shizuoka Pref.). In the late Edo period, when a Hatamoto (direct retainer of Shogun), Honda Sukehisa, was feoffed the area including Shimo-Hirakawa, he appointed the Kuroda clan as the local governor. After the Meiji Restoration, the generations of the Kuroda family served as village mayor and town mayor and contributed to the development of this area.
The main building of the residence is built in Yosemune-zukuri with a pantiled (sangawara-buki) roof. There is a formal shikidai (a low board step) in the entrance hall. Elaborate artifice befitting to the status of the mayor can be seen everywhere inside the residence. The nagaya-mon gate in Yosemune-zukuri with a thatched roof is said to be 250 years old. The building shows the typical architectural style of the local governor’s residence in the late Edo period.