Murao Family Residence

The Murao Family Residence estate

The Murao Family Residence (村尾家住宅, Murao-ke Jūtaku) is an old farming household's estate in Nishiueta-chō, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, whose main house was framed in 1842; it and five other structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2003.

The family name is read Murao. Nishiueta lies in the southern, eastern-leaning part of Takamatsu, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Murao household as an old family that set its estate at the foot of the hills. Its note on the barn goes further and calls the Muraos a large-scale farming household.

Reading the Agency's six descriptions together gives a rough plan of the estate. The main house stands at the back of the plot, facing south. South of it a long nagayamon gatehouse runs east and west. In the front garden on the south side, a stone wall about 35 meters long works with the gatehouse to give the Murao Family Residence its formal face.

Southeast of the main house is the South Storehouse, once the rice store, with the barn joined on to its north end along the stone-faced eastern edge of the plot. Behind the main house, on its north side, sits the North Storehouse, the smallest of the six.

Dating the Murao Family Residence

The main house is the oldest part of the Murao Family Residence. Ink inscriptions on timbers in its roof space record that the ridge was raised in Tenpō 13, which is 1842. The outer walls were altered later, but the posts and beams of the frame survive well.

For the other five structures, the national database gives a date of around 1897 (Meiji 30). That is roughly half a century after the main house went up, and it places the gatehouse, the stone wall, both storehouses and the barn in the same period. We found no public record explaining how the estate came to be rebuilt around the old house.

The main house and the gatehouse are both about 21 meters long, so the two buildings face each other across the yard at nearly the same length.

The six registered structures of the Murao Family Residence

All six parts of the Murao Family Residence were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 18, 2003, under the consecutive numbers 37-0143 through 37-0148. They were registered under three different criteria. The main house, the gatehouse and the barn contribute to the historic landscape; the two storehouses serve as models of design; and the stone wall would be difficult to reproduce.

• Murao Family Residence Main House: 1842, single-story timber, metal-sheet and tile roof, building area 204 square meters
• Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate: around 1897, single-story timber, tile roof, building area 115 square meters, with an earthen wall 30 meters long
• Murao Family Residence South Storehouse: around 1897, two-story Dozo-zukuri storehouse, tile roof, building area 68 square meters
• Murao Family Residence Barn: around 1897, single-story timber, tile roof, building area 36 square meters
• Murao Family Residence North Storehouse: around 1897, two-story Dozo-zukuri storehouse, tile roof, building area 16 square meters
• Murao Family Residence Stone Wall: around 1897, stone, 35 meters long

The main house is built in the Shihōbuta-zukuri form, a roof type found in farmhouses of the old Sanuki province, now Kagawa. The two storehouses and the gatehouse are roofed in heavy Hongawarabuki tiling, while the barn has the simpler Sangawara-buki pantiles, so the roofs themselves sort the buildings by rank.

Visiting the Murao Family Residence

The Murao Family Residence is a privately owned home. We checked material from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Kagawa Prefecture and Takamatsu City and found no notice that the buildings are open to the public. Assume there are no visits, stay off the property, and look only from outside.

No photography policy has been published either. Please respect the people who live here and keep residents and the inside of the house out of your pictures.

By public transport, take the Kotoden Bus Nishiueta Line from bay 8 at Takamatsu Station. It runs via Sun Messe Kagawa and ends at the Nishiueta stop, and the fare table revised on October 1, 2026, lists the fare from Takamatsu Station as 870 yen. Measured on a map, the stop is about 300 meters from the Murao Family Residence in a straight line. Buses are infrequent, so check the Kotoden Bus timetable before you set out.