The 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake resulted in collapse of several traditional buildings in Yogyakarta, including joglos. This fact indicates that joglos are quite vulnerable to low-frequency ground shaking. The stability and rigidity of a joglo building are provided by the core of the building, i.e. the rong-rongan structure, in which connection of sakaguru (the column)-sunduk (the long span beam)-kili (the short span beam) has a rigid characteristic. This rigid rong-rongan structure behaves elastically during an earthquake event, and attracts large inertia force. This research aims to increase the structure performance of the rong-rongan by adding “SANTEN-fuse,” an earthquake vibration damper, and by changing the joint connection of sakaguru-sunduk-kili to be that of a pin connection, but not changing the physical appearance of rong-rongan. Santen, whose function is to transfer the load of the roof from blandar to sunduk and from pangeret to kili, is modified so that it has frictional damper characteristic. This “SANTEN-fuse” can resist shear force up to certain level before it slides and acting as a damper. With the reduced stiffness, which leads to reduced inertia force, the overall structural responses are expected to be lower. An experimental quantitative method was used by doing a simulation using SAP2000 software to verify the idea. The pendopo dalem Yudonegaran a joglo house in Yogyakarta was chosen as a case study. Non-linear time history analysis was conducted. Simulation results showed that the proposed modification of rong-rongan structure by using “SANTEN-fuse”, performed better than the original rong-rongan structure.