Kitano-Cho, or of Kitano ijinkan, is a district in Kobe, in which there are more than thirty residences of foreign diplomats and wealthy merchants built in the periods of Meiji (1868 – 1912) and Taisho (1912 – 1926). About twenty of these houses are open to tourists.

The construction of the residence began after 1868, when the port of Kobe was opened to foreign merchant ships, and then became one of the largest international ports in Japan.

The name of the area translates as "North field". The fact that Kobe stretches along the coast for 30 miles, and the people settled at the water's edge. For arrivals in the second half of the nineteenth century remained the only place in the Northern part of this "strip" at the foot of the Rokko mountains, over time, the foreigners began to settle and on the slopes of hills, from which opens a beautiful view of the Bay. Each of the aliens have been building houses in accordance with the architectural traditions of their country, so in the film-those you can see at home in English, French, Chinese styles. There is also a house in the Russian style, built by merchants Parachutisme. In addition to residential residences in the area in the late nineteenth century were built the religious buildings of different faiths – Christian churches, synagogues, mosques, prayer houses and Hindu temples.

Among developers, the man said those were also popular Victorian style built of stone and wood home was believed to be the example of European chic. Since the late 80-ies of the XIX century until about 1910 in Kobe were built over a hundred houses, a European appearance which differed sharply from traditional Japanese dwellings. To date, survived only 30 buildings, some are still residences.

The historic district of Kitano-those relatively successfully survived the great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 and is now a Museum under the open sky.