Futabakan, Historic house in Nagoya, Japan

Futabakan is a Taisho-era house in Nagoya's Higashi Ward, built by the America-ya company for actress Kawakami Sadayakko and industrialist Fukuzawa Momosuke, who lived there from 1920 to 1926. The two-story wooden building has a Japanese-style main house with a large hall, a Western-style wing with high ceilings and stained glass, and a storehouse. It was moved to its present site and opened as a museum in 2005.

The building was constructed during the Taisho period when Japan was actively absorbing Western influences while maintaining traditional arts. It served as the residence of someone who pioneered new forms of performance and helped establish professional theater as a respected artistic field in the country.

The house is known as the former residence of Kawakami Sadayakko, Japan's first actress, who lived here with the industrialist Fukuzawa Momosuke from 1920 to 1926. Its nickname, Futaba Goten (Futaba Palace), came from its location in Higashi-Futaba-chō and its lavish Japanese-Western style. Today the second floor displays materials on writers connected to Nagoya, including a reconstruction of Shigeyama Sannosuke's study.

The house stands in Nagoya's Higashi Ward, about ten minutes on foot from Takaoka Station on the Sakura-dori subway line, five minutes from the Shirakabe bus stop and two minutes from the Iida-cho city bus stop. The Me-guru sightseeing bus also stops at the Futabakan. A car park holds ten vehicles.

The house contains an important collection of literary works by local authors that might otherwise remain undocumented and forgotten. This archive reveals a side of the location's cultural life that extends beyond its theatrical associations.