Morimatsu Family Residence Main House

About the Morimatsu Family Residence Main House

The Morimatsu Family Residence Main House (森松家住宅主屋, Morimatsu-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is the late-Edo (1830 to 1867) main dwelling of a former village headman's estate in Mukonoso Higashi, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009.

The Morimatsu Family Residence Main House stands on the west side of the compound and, with the Nagayamon Gate just to its south, forms the formal front of the estate. At 18 by 15 metres and 263 m², it is the largest of the 12 registered structures. The national register lists it as one storey, but inside there is a tsushi loft, a low upper floor tucked under the roof. A partition wall runs off its east side.

A Headman's House, Moved and Rebuilt

The Morimatsu Family Residence Main House was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a large, solid house that still carries the air of a headman's home.

Amagasaki City notes that the main house was moved here and re-erected at the end of the Edo period. Where it came from, and how old it was before the move, is not recorded in the published sources.

The Morimatsu family held the post of shōya, or village headman, from the late Edo period into early Meiji, so the house went up on this site in the middle of those years. It is best read as the house from which the village's affairs were run.

Plaster Waves and a Swelling Roof

The Morimatsu Family Residence Main House has an irimoya hip-and-gable roof, entered at the gable end in the Tsumairi manner and laid with pantiles. A lean-to Geya roof wraps around the main block, and the roof slopes are given a gentle outward swell, or mukuri, that softens the silhouette.

The walls are just as distinctive. Beyond the main wall surfaces, the eaves and gable walls are sealed in Shikkui lime plaster, leaving almost no timber exposed. At the corner posts, the plaster is modelled in relief into a pattern of breaking waves.

Amagasaki City's page shows the south side of the house: white walls under the big gable, which is the image most people will take away.

Seeing the Morimatsu Family Residence Main House

The Morimatsu Family Residence Main House is part of a private home and its interior is not open. Because it sits on the west edge of the plot, part of the exterior should be visible from the road on that side, though this has not been checked on site.

Details such as the plaster waves on the corner posts are some distance from the road. Please photograph only from the public street. Directions to the estate are on the Morimatsu Family Residence page.