Matsumoto Family Residence (Koryo Town)

About the Matsumoto Family Residence in Koryo Town

The Matsumoto Family Residence (松本家住宅, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku) is the estate of a prosperous farming family in the moated village of Kodera, Koryo Town, Nara Prefecture, whose 13 buildings, walls and gates, built in the Meiji and early Showa periods, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2017.

Kodera lies on the flat land near the middle of the Nara Basin. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as standing in a moated village at the heart of the Yamato Basin. Inside that ring of moats, a single farming household spread its property across two plots, one on each side of the village road.

Twelve of the registered structures date from the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) and one from the Meiji period. Only the Inui storehouse on the north plot has an exact year, 1930. There are storehouses for household goods, a barn said to have held a rice-hulling mortar, and quarters for hired men with a shed for firewood beside them. The Agency's notes on the utensil storehouse and the northeast barn both describe the Matsumoto Family Residence as the home of a wealthy farming family.

Thirteen Registrations in One Day

All 13 were registered together on 27 October 2017, under consecutive numbers 29-253 to 29-265. The main house and the inner storehouse were registered as models of design; the other 11 for their contribution to the historic landscape. The national database gives these dates and sizes:

• Main house: early Showa. Two storeys, timber, tiled roof, 243 m²
• Front gate: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 21 m², with a side wicket to the west and clay walls
• Inner storehouse: early Showa. Two-storey clay storehouse with a one-storey timber part, tiled roof, 25 m²
• Tatsumi storehouse: Meiji period. Two-storey clay storehouse, tiled roof, 74 m²
• Utensil storehouse: early Showa. Two-storey clay storehouse with a one-storey timber part, tiled roof, 38 m²
• Servants' quarters and firewood shed: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 40 m²
• South compound southeast barn: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 24 m², with a gate
• South compound northeast barn: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 8.1 m², with a gate
• South compound south and west walls: early Showa. Clay walls with tiled copings, 39 m in total
• North compound Inui storehouse: 1930. Two-storey clay storehouse, tiled roof, 45 m², with a clay wall
• North compound rice storehouse and barn: early Showa. Clay storehouse, one storey with a two-storey part, tiled roof, 143 m², with a barn
• North compound west barn: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 15 m², with a board fence
• North compound gatehouse: early Showa. One storey, timber, tiled roof, 39 m², with a board fence

Each building has also been repaired at least once between 1979 and 2011, and the database records the year for each. A complete set of early Showa farm buildings, with the job of each still legible in its form and position, is presumably what led to the whole group being registered at once.

Two Compounds Facing Across the Road

The Matsumoto Family Residence straddles a road running east to west. The Agency's descriptions call the southern plot the South Compound (Minami-yashiki) and the northern plot the North Compound (Kita-yashiki).

The main house is the centre of the South Compound. North of it, on the road, stands the front gate, with clay walls running east and west. East of that wall the northeast barn continues the line along the street. The inner storehouse is joined to the north-west end of the main house, and from its south-west corner a clay wall turns south to close off the corner of the plot. East of the main house are the servants' quarters and firewood shed; to the south-east stand the Tatsumi and utensil storehouses, the Tatsumi storehouse marking the southern edge. The southeast barn runs from the east end of the Tatsumi storehouse along the east side of the utensil storehouse.

The North Compound lies across the road from the main house. Its south side, facing the street, is taken up by the gatehouse, a single run of lodge, gate and fence. Along the north edge is the long rice storehouse and barn, the Inui storehouse occupies the north-east corner, and the west barn stands towards the south-west. Broadly, rice and farm work belonged to the north plot, while the family's living quarters and household stores were on the south.

From the road, the front gate and northeast barn on one side face the gatehouse on the other, both lined with tall vertical boarding below and white Shikkui plaster above. The Agency notes that the gatehouse and the front gate together shape the streetscape. Each building has its own page with details of its construction.

Visiting the Matsumoto Family Residence

The Matsumoto Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public. Visitors cannot enter the grounds or the buildings; they can only be seen from the road. No special openings had been announced as of September 2026. Please take photographs only from the public road and avoid lingering at the gates.

Because the two compounds face each other, the gates and walls of the Matsumoto Family Residence read best from the road that runs between them. Kodera is a village of moats and narrow lanes, so keep an eye out for passing cars.

By public transport, take Koryo Town's community bus, the Koryo Genki-go Central Line, from Yamato-Takada Station on the Kintetsu Osaka Line and get off at the Kodera stop. On the timetable revised in April 2025, the ride from the Kintetsu Takada Station stop to Kodera takes about 22 minutes, with a bus roughly every hour and a half during the day. The fare is 200 yen when boarding or alighting at Yamato-Takada Station. Check the walk from the stop on a map before setting out. There is no visitor parking. Services can change, so confirm the latest times on Koryo Town's website before you travel.