Kumamoto · JP

Janes Residence (Former Teacher's House of Kumamoto Western School)

The Janes Residence is the oldest surviving Western-style building in Kumamoto Prefecture, and a window onto the city's most remarkable moment of modernization. Built in 1871 as the family home of Leroy Lansing Janes—an American educator hired to run the pioneering Kumamoto Western School—it is now a Prefectural Important Cultural Property that tells the story of how a small domain school helped reshape Japanese education, agriculture, and even the founding of the Japanese Red Cross. The two-storey house mixes a distinctly Western look—a wraparound veranda, tall chimney, glass windows and ornamental trim—with traditional Japanese timber framing. Inside, exhibits display Janes' own belongings alongside relics of the Hakuaisha, the relief society whose founding was approved here and that grew into the Japanese Red Cross. Destroyed in the 2016 earthquakes, the residence was faithfully reconstructed using around 70% of its original timbers and reopened in 2023 beside the tram line in the Suizenji-Ezuko Park area.