Murao Family Residence Main House

About the Murao Family Residence Main House

The Murao Family Residence Main House (村尾家住宅主屋, Murao-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a single-story timber farmhouse in Nishiueta-chō, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, whose ridge was raised in 1842, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

The house stands at the back of the Murao estate, facing south, and covers 204 square meters. Its front runs about 21 meters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the scale grand and treats the Murao Family Residence Main House as the center of an old family estate set at the foot of the hills.

Why the Murao Main House was registered

The Murao Main House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Its date is unusually secure. Ink inscriptions on timbers in the roof space show that the ridge went up in Tenpō 13, or 1842. The other five registered structures on the estate are dated only to around 1897, but the Murao Family Residence Main House can be pinned to a single year from written evidence.

The outer walls and openings were altered later, yet the posts and beams of the frame survive well. The Agency points to this when it values the house as the skeleton of a late Edo farmhouse.

What to look for in the Murao Main House

The roof is in the Shihōbuta-zukuri form found in farmhouses of the old Sanuki province, now Kagawa. A central Yosemune-zukuri hipped roof is covered in metal sheet, and a tiled Geya lean-to roof runs all the way round it.

Seen from outside, the tiled skirt wraps the base of the metal roof, so the house reads as two roofs stacked one above the other. That is why the registration lists two materials, metal sheet and tile, for a single building.

At about 21 meters, the Murao Main House is almost exactly as long as the gatehouse that faces it across the yard to the south.

Visiting the Murao Family Residence Main House

The Murao Family Residence Main House is a private home, and we found no notice that its interior is open. Because it stands at the back of the plot, we could not confirm how much of it can be seen from outside. Please stay off the property and keep residents out of any photographs. Directions to the estate and notes on visiting are on the Murao Family Residence page.