Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House

What the Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House Is

The Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House (波多腰家住宅主屋, Hatakoshi-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a farmhouse of about 1748 in the honmune-zukuri style in the Hata district of Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000 and added to the Matsumoto City list of Tangible Cultural Properties on 8 February 2017. Its registration number is 20-0036.

It is a 2-storey timber house with a building area of 314 square metres, almost square in plan at 8 and a half by 8 and a half ken bays, under one broad gabled roof. The national register of 2000 describes the roof as board-covered; the city's record of 2017 gives sheet iron.

The year 1748 is when the Hatakoshi family is said to have moved to this plot. Matsumoto City adds that the design of the front and of the formal rooms also points to the middle of the 18th century. The detached wing joined at the back was added late in the Edo period.

One of the Oldest of Its Kind

Honmune-zukuri is the farmhouse type of central and southern Shinano, from the Matsumoto basin down the Ina valley. A wide gabled roof of shallow pitch covers the whole house, and the gable end, not the long side, is treated as the front. The giveaway is an ornament on the end of the ridge called suzume-odori, "dancing sparrows."

The Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House takes its west gable as the front, with a shikidai formal step and the great main door. Latticed bay windows sit symmetrically in the gable wall, and the ridge carries its suzume-odori. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a fine example of the type, and it was registered as a model of architectural form.

Matsumoto City goes further. On the strength of its mid-18th-century date, the city ranks the house among the oldest surviving buildings of the honmune-zukuri type. Its rooms follow the three-by-three grid usual for the form. That early place in the history of the type is why the city added the house to its own list on top of the national registration.

The West Gable

The face to study is the west gable. Within its broad triangle the latticed windows are set in balance, one on each side, with the formal step and main door below. It is a frontage designed to be read from the gate, and it announces the standing of a headman's household.

Look up at the ridge for the suzume-odori. The ornament rises from the end of the ridge and gives a crisp edge to the long, low line of the roof.

Behind the main house, the detached wing holds a formal reception room of high quality, with a finely designed alcove. According to Matsumoto City, it was used when the lord of the Matsumoto domain stayed here, a reminder that a village headman's house could also serve as lodging for the domain's ruler.

Visiting the Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House

The Hatakoshi Family Residence Main House is still a private home and its interior is not open, the reception room in the rear wing included. The house stands behind the west front gate with its gable turned toward it. Do not enter the property; view only what can be seen from outside it.

Directions and viewing conditions for the whole compound are on the Hatakoshi Family Residence page.