Matsuoka Family Residence Main House

The House at the Center

The Matsuoka Family Residence Main House (松岡家住宅主屋, Matsuoka-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is the two-storey timber home of a sake-brewing family in Hongō, Hidaka Village, Kōchi Prefecture, built in the early Shōwa era and registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2004. It stands in the middle of the Matsuoka compound, with its own listed gate and fence directly in front of the entrance.

The house measures 9 bays by 5 and a half bays, covers 181 square meters, and carries a hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri roof of pantiles. The brewery buildings cluster to the west; the Main House keeps a little distance from them, a clear line between workplace and home.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the brewery was built first. The Main House came later, in early Shōwa, a generation after the early Taishō Pressing House and North Sake Brewery.

Why It Was Listed for Its Design

Only three of the twelve listed structures at the Matsuoka Family Residence were registered as works that set a standard for design. The Main House is one of them, and the most important.

The case rests on walls and eaves. The exterior is finished in Tosa plaster over Shinkabe framing, which leaves posts and beams visible in the wall face. Tosa plaster, a Kōchi specialty mixed with fermented straw and laid on thick, is made for a region of heavy rain.

The earth-floored front entrance is the exception. It is rendered in black plaster, and the darker block set into the white walls gives the whole front a sense of weight that the Agency's description singles out.

Deep Eaves on the South Side

The south elevation is what stays with you. Large-diameter logs, left round, serve as the eave purlins and carry the roof far out beyond the wall. The deeper the overhang, the deeper the shadow, and on a clear day a dark band runs the length of the white facade.

Round-log purlins take more work than squared timber, but they show their girth and curve, and they give the eaves a heavy, muscular line. Compare them with the plain working buildings to the west and you can see how much more care went into the family's side of the compound.

See the black-plastered entrance from the front and the eaves from the south, ideally in morning or late-afternoon light, when the sun comes in low enough to measure the overhang.

Seeing the Main House

There is no published arrangement for viewing the interior of the Matsuoka Family Residence Main House, so plan on seeing the outside only. Even that is hard to do without entering the compound.

On event days visitors can often pass through the gate, and the prefecture's feature on the site describes the fine Japanese house that appears once you are through it. At other times, ask the Hidaka Sakagura Association in advance. How to arrange a visit and how to get there are covered on the Matsuoka Family Residence page.