Murakami Family Residence Main House

A Village Headman's House on Ōshima

The Murakami Family Residence Main House (村上家住宅主屋, Murakamike Jūtaku Omoya) is a mid-Edo-period dwelling on the island of Ōshima in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, added to the national list of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 15 August 2024. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the building between 1661 and 1751 and records a remodelling around 1871. It is a 2-storey timber structure with a tiled roof and a footprint of 192 square metres.

Ōshima sits offshore from Niihama, and the only way across is the city-run ferry. The Murakami family held the post of shōya, the headman who collected the rice tax and ran village affairs on behalf of the Saijō domain. Their house stands at the centre of the island's one settlement, in the middle of its own walled plot, facing south.

The roof is Irimoya-zukuri, hipped above and gabled below, entered on the long eaves side in the manner called Hirairi, and covered in Hongawarabuki, the heavy combination of round and flat tiles. The upper floor is a Tsushi-nikai, a low half-storey under the eaves rather than a full second floor, which is why the building reads as squat from the street. A Shikidai entrance porch projects from the eastern half of the south front under a gently swelling mukuri gable.

Why It Was Registered

The Murakami Family Residence Main House was listed under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country, as register number 38-0187 in the 107th round of registrations. The front gate with its south wall and the lord's gate with its east wall were registered the same day, so the principal elements of the compound entered the register together.

Niihama City records that the family preserves a note of a visit by the lord of the Saijō domain during the Genroku era (1688 to 1704) and a document describing repairs carried out in 1762. Paper evidence of that kind is rarely still held alongside the building it describes, and the pairing is what made the case for listing the compound as a surviving example of an Edo-period headman's establishment.

A Registered Tangible Cultural Property is not a museum piece. The Murakami Family Residence Main House is a lived-in home, and registration has not changed that.

What to Look For

Look up at the second floor and you will see the plastered lattice windows called nurikome-degōshi. The wooden bars are buried under Shikkui lime plaster rather than left exposed, a treatment that resists fire and screens the room behind. The ground floor is the opposite: Shinkabe walls with the posts left visible, and Shitami-itabari weatherboarding on part of the elevation.

The porch step is worth a pause. A shikidai was where a household received callers of rank, kneeling to greet them at floor level. Its presence announced who the Murakami were before anyone crossed the threshold.

Inside, the plan puts the earth-floored Doma on the west and four rooms in two rows on the east, with a corner room pushed out to the south-east. That corner has openings on two sides and catches both light and breeze. The layout survives largely as first built, which is unusual for a house continuously occupied for three centuries.

One detail rewards comparison with the rest of the compound. The Main House carries hongawarabuki tiles, the heavier and more prestigious system, while the everyday front gate and the perimeter walls are roofed in lighter pantiles. The hierarchy of the site is written on its roofs.

Visiting

The house is private property and the interior is closed. There is no visitor entrance, no open day, and no office taking bookings. Please stay off the plot and look from the public road only. The same applies to photography: keep the interior and the residents out of frame.

Takihama Station on the JR Yosan Line is the nearest railway stop, about 2.5 kilometres from Kuroshima Port, or about 30 minutes on foot. The municipal ferry crosses from Kuroshima to Ōshima in 15 minutes. A one-way adult fare is 60 yen and a child fare 30 yen, with 13 sailings each way per day (timetable revised 1 October 2023; checked 5 September 2026). The settlement centre is about 5 minutes' walk from the pier, and the tiled roof of the Murakami Family Residence Main House is easy to pick out from the lane.

There are no shops or traffic lights on the island. Sailings are frequent, but missing the last one leaves you stranded, so fix your return time before you set off walking.