Hatta Family Residence Main House

A Merchant's Front on the Matsushiro Road

The Hatta Family Residence Main House (八田家住宅主屋, Hatta-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is the principal dwelling of a merchant compound in Matsushiro, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture; built in 1897, it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 December 2005. It stands at the western edge of the Hatta property, right on the road now designated National Route 403.

It is a two-storey timber building with a footprint of 273 square metres. The ridge runs east to west, and the rear wing turns south, so the plan forms an L. The roof is laid with Sangawara-buki pan tiles, hipped at the street end and gabled at the east end.

Nagano City records that after the great Matsushiro fire of 1892 the Hatta rebuilt their house from memory of the one that burned. The Main House is the heart of that rebuilding, finished five years after the fire.

Why It Was Registered

The criterion is contribution to the historic landscape, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the facade. The walls are Shinkabe construction, with posts and beams left visible, finished in white plaster; the ground floor has vertical lattice, and the upper floor carries a projecting Degōshi lattice. Together they give the house an unmistakably mercantile face.

The effect depends on layering. The dark timber frame divides the white wall into panels, and only the upper lattice projects from the wall, so the two screens sit at different depths. The street elevation ends up with a series of shadow lines rather than a flat surface.

The Hatta Family Residence Main House was not registered as a stand-alone object. It forms the street front together with the gate, the wall and the Long Storehouse, and Nagano City, describing the compound as Hatta-tei, points to the lattice-fronted house beside its gate as the image of a domain purveyor's home.

What to Look For

Start with the street end. Because it is hipped, the roof slopes toward the road as well, so the eaves run level above the upper lattice and there is no triangular gable wall facing the street, unlike many townhouses entered from the gable side.

Then compare the two floors. Fine vertical slats below, a boxed projecting screen above. In a house that was also a place of business, lattice filtered the gaze of passers-by while letting in light and air.

The house faces west, so its front takes the sun in the afternoon. Late afternoon, when the upper lattice throws its shadow onto the plaster, is the easiest time to read the depth of the facade.

Visiting

The interior of the Hatta Family Residence Main House is not open to the public (checked September 2026). You can see the exterior from the pavement along National Route 403. The Front Gate lies just south, and the wall and Long Storehouse continue to the north, so walking the pavement takes you along the whole street front.

The grounds are private. Stay outside the gate and take photographs from the pavement, and keep an eye on traffic when you stop.