Murao Family Residence Stone Wall

About the Murao Family Residence Stone Wall

The Murao Family Residence Stone Wall (村尾家住宅石垣, Murao-ke Jūtaku Ishigaki) is a stone retaining wall about 35 meters long, built around 1897 in Nishiueta-chō, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

The wall runs along the front garden on the south side of the Murao estate. It is about 35 meters long and about 2 meters high, and it is counted as a single structure, the only one of the six registered items on the estate that is not a building.

Why the Murao Stone Wall was registered

The Murao Stone Wall was registered on the criterion that it would be difficult to reproduce. Of the six Murao registrations, only the Murao Family Residence Stone Wall falls under this criterion.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs says that, together with the Murao Family Residence Nagayamon Gate, the wall gives the front of the estate an imposing finish. The fine fitting of its decorative stones is part of what would be hard to repeat today.

What to look for in the Murao Stone Wall

The stones are laid in a manner close to Tanizumi. Each stone is tilted and dropped into the valley between two stones in the course below, so the joints never form level lines and instead run in a diamond pattern. Long kuzuishi coping stones finish the top in a clean line.

A little east of center, stones cut into the shapes of a gourd and a folding fan are fitted precisely into the wall. Look for the place where these odd shapes interrupt the diamond grid of the ordinary stones.

The two ends are finished differently. At the east the top slopes with the lie of the land, while at the west the wall steps down one level and then turns a right angle like a key.

Visiting the Murao Family Residence Stone Wall

The Murao Family Residence Stone Wall stands in the front garden of a private home, and we found no notice about visits. Please do not enter the garden or climb the wall, and look from outside instead. No photography policy is published. Directions to the estate and notes on visiting are on the Murao Family Residence page.