Former Hunter Residence

The Former Hunter Residence is the largest of all the surviving Western-style foreign residences in Kobe, a grand verandaed mansion now preserved within the leafy grounds of Oji Park beside the city's zoo. While the celebrated ijinkan of the Kitano district draw most visitors, this imposing house — relocated from Kitano to its present setting — is arguably the finest single example of the domestic architecture that Kobe's foreign merchants brought to Japan, and it is designated an Important Cultural Property.

Kobe opened to international trade in the late 19th century, and prosperous foreign residents built substantial homes on the hillside of Kitano-cho above the harbour. Among them was E. H. Hunter, a British merchant and industrialist who played a significant role in the modern development of the city, including in shipbuilding and engineering. His residence, built and enlarged around the turn of the 20th century, was on a scale beyond most of its neighbours, a sprawling two-storey mansion wrapped in deep, elegant verandas and arcaded with slender columns, designed to open the house to light, air and view in the manner of grand colonial homes. When redevelopment threatened it, the building was carefully moved to Oji Park and preserved, and it remains the most substantial such residence in the city.

Architecturally the house rewards attention for its generous proportions and refined detailing: the long ranges of arched veranda, the balanced facade, the tall windows and the fine timber and ironwork all speak of the wealth and confidence of Kobe's foreign community at its height. The interior, when accessible, contains period rooms furnished to evoke the life of a leading merchant family, but it should be noted that the inside is opened to the public only on a limited number of days each season; for much of the year visitors admire the building from the outside, walking its verandas and grounds, which is still a rewarding experience given the mansion's scale and setting.

The location adds to the appeal. Oji Park is a spacious green space that also contains Kobe's Oji Zoo, so a visit to the residence combines easily with a family outing, and the park is pretty in cherry-blossom season. The contrast between the stately old foreign mansion and the busy modern park around it captures something of how Kobe has woven its cosmopolitan heritage into everyday city life.

For travellers interested in Kobe's international history, the Former Hunter Residence offers a valuable counterpoint to the Kitano ijinkan: where those hillside houses cluster together in a picturesque quarter, this one stands alone in its parkland, larger and grander than any of them, a reminder of the individual fortunes and ambitions that the open port made possible.

Getting there: the residence is about an eight-minute walk from Oji-koen Station on the Hankyu Kobe Line, within Oji Park beside the zoo, in the eastern part of the city. The grounds and exterior can be enjoyed during park hours free of charge, while the interior opens on limited seasonal days with a small admission. Combine it with the zoo or a stroll through the park, and admire Kobe's grandest surviving monument to its age of foreign trade.