Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed

About the Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed

The Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed (松本家住宅下男部屋及び柴小屋, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Genan-beya oyobi Shibagoya) is a one-storey timber outbuilding of the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) east of the main house of the Matsumoto estate in Kodera, Koryo Town, Nara Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017.

It is a long, narrow building, 10.0 by 3.0 metres, under a gabled pantile roof, with a building area of 40 m². It was renovated in 1984.

Rooms for Hired Men, Space for Fuel

The two northern rooms of the Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed were living rooms for genan, hired men who lived in and worked on the farm. The southern part is the shibagoya, where brushwood and firewood for the kitchen stoves and the bath were stacked. Keeping a large household supplied with fuel was daily work in itself.

Putting the men's rooms and the fuel store under one roof shows how closely their work and their lives were bound together. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the building as a record of everyday life on a farm.

Between the House and the Stores

The building sits at a junction in the estate. At its north end a gate stands between it and the main house; to the south a passage projects towards the utensil storehouse, linking the inner and outer parts of the household.

Anyone moving between the earth floor of the main house and the storehouses and barns at the back would pass along this building. The hired men's rooms were placed right on the line between where the family lived and where the work was done.

The Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Seeing the Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed

The Matsumoto Family Residence Servants' Quarters and Firewood Shed is part of a private home and its interior is not open.

Standing inside the estate east of the main house, it is only partly visible from the road; its north gate is set back from the front gate and the street. Please do not look into the grounds. Directions are on the Matsumoto Family Residence (Koryo Town) page.