Aoyama House
Tagiya, one of the six goyado inns, operated in what is now the Aoyama House. Built in the mid-1800s, both the two-story structure and its storehouse maintain their original appearance, with white plastered walls and gray roof tiles; the simple details of its woodwork are noteworthy. The goyado inns were part of the society of the Edo period (1603–1867) when the Iwami Ginzan silver mine was under the direct control of the central government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which assigned a magistrate to supervise the mine. In addition to the mine itself, the magistrate administered the lands around it, which encompassed some 150 villages. People from these villages often had to travel to the town of Omori to conduct official business at the magistrate’s office. In the mid-1700s, this led the government to establish the goyado system, under which the villages were organized into six groups. Each group was assigned an inn in which people from those villages had to stay when visiting Omori. The magistrate contracted rich merchant families in Omori to provide these inns, which also served the purpose of relaying new laws and orders from the magistrate’s office to the villages. The Aoyama House remains a private residence but is opened to visitors on some occasions.