This residence is similar to the Higuchi Residence, with an entrance positioned diagonally from the gate. It is the estate of Yokota, a middle-class samurai family of the Matsushiro Clan.
They say the Yokota family widened the Chikuma River to allow ships to pass by during the Edo period. Matsushiro would benefit from trade if the ships could pass through the river, they thought. It was a large-scale project which required heavy investment from the family’s funds, but the Edo Shogunate ordered them to stop this project partway through. Although the dream of ships passing through the city sunk in the water, the fact that there was a vassal who was eager enough to invest his own money, makes us realize just how good the politics were in the Matsushiro Clan.
In the Meiji period, the Yokota Family became widely known for their daughter. At the age of 15, she went to work at the government-run Tomioka Silk Mill and later returned home with the techniques she acquired there. In Matsushiro, she was involved in establishing a private silk mill, as well as educating and passing on her technical knowledge.
The Yokota Family has also produced many talented personnel such as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Minister of Railways from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period. This may be due, in part, to the Matsushiro mentality of focusing on the education and development of skilled people.