Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn

About the Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn

The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn (松本家住宅南屋敷北東納屋, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Minami-yashiki Hokutō Naya) is a one-storey timber barn of the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) that extends east of the clay wall beside the front gate of the Matsumoto estate in Kodera, Koryo Town, Nara Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017.

The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn is 11.7 metres long, with a tiled roof and a building area of 8.1 m². The registration includes its gate. It was renovated in 1990.

The Mortar Room

This barn is also known as the karausu-beya, the mortar room. A karausu is a foot-operated pounder: a long beam with a pestle at one end, rocked by treading on the other, used to hull and polish rice. The Agency for Cultural Affairs takes the name as a sign that this was a space for farm work.

In the rice-growing Nara Basin, finishing the harvest at home was routine work, and here the family placed it at the front of the estate, close to the road.

Half Wall, Half Shed

The western half is just a wall, pierced by a pair of double doors. The eastern half has posts along the south side carrying a roof over an open storage space.

A building 11.7 metres long with only 8.1 m² under roof makes sense once you see that only the eastern half is roofed, and not deeply. From the road it reads as a continuation of the clay wall from the front gate, and the join between wall and barn is hard to spot.

The Agency describes it as a barn that conveys how a wealthy farm household worked. The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Seeing the Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn

The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Northeast Barn is part of a private home and visitors cannot pass its gate.

Standing on the street side of the estate, it can be seen from the road together with the front gate: look east along the wall from the gate to the pair of double doors. Please photograph only from the public road. Directions are on the Matsumoto Family Residence (Koryo Town) page.