Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn

About the Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn (森松家住宅東納屋, Morimatsu-ke Jūtaku Higashi-naya) is a long late-Taishō barn on the east side of a former headman's estate in Mukonoso Higashi, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009.

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn occupies the southern half of the east side of the plot. It is a one-storey timber building 22 by 6.1 metres, 132 m² in area, under a gabled roof of pantiles, and at 22 metres it is the longest building on the estate.

A Barn With a Room to Stay In

Inside, the Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn is divided in two. The northern 15 metres are the barn proper, for tools, harvests and work under cover. At the southern end is a room built for people to sleep in.

Partitioning off a bedroom at the end of a barn suggests that in the Taishō years someone lodged on the estate. Who used it, and how, is not recorded in the published sources.

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes the calm street front it gives the east side of the estate.

White Plaster Over High Boarding

The walls of the Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn are white Shikkui plaster above, with vertical boarding carried up to a high waist line. It is the same white-and-dark scheme as the storehouses and the Nagayamon Gate, stretched here along 22 metres of street.

Just to the north is the East Gate of 1922. The barn also dates to the late Taishō era, so the two tidied up the east side of the estate at much the same time. The small hip-and-gable roof of the gate against the long plain gable of the barn is worth a look.

Seeing the Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn

The Morimatsu Family Residence East Barn belongs to a private home and its interior is not open. It faces the road on the east side of the estate, from where its exterior can be seen.

Walking along that road gives you the full run of wall from the East Gate southward. Keep any photographs to what can be taken from the street. The route from the station is given on the Morimatsu Family Residence page.