Horii Family Residence Wall

A Plastered Wall Framing the Estate

The Horii Family Residence Wall (堀井家住宅塀) is the boundary wall of a family estate of about 1932 in Anashi, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a timber wall with tiled coping, 30 metres in total length; registration number 29-0088.

Two Stretches of Wall

The Horii Family Residence Wall is made up of two runs: one leaves the nagayamon gate heading north and turns a right angle, the other fills the gap between the detached room and the storehouse (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Together they come to 30 metres.

It stands on dressed stones laid like a sill and is built with the posts left exposed (shinkabe), plastered in lime above and clad in vertical boarding below, with a small roof of pantiles along the top (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape: it gives order to the east and north sides of the estate and lets the buildings read as one continuous group.

What to Look For

Follow the change of materials from bottom to top: dressed stone, then vertical boards, then white plaster, then the tiled coping (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The boarding probably protects the lower part from rain splash and wear.

Built around 1932, the same time as the nagayamon gate, the wall carries the line of the gate northward so that the east front of the estate reads as one (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The wall forms the outer edge of the estate on the east and north (Agency for Cultural Affairs). This is a private property, so stay outside the grounds; no official visiting information was found.