Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn

About the Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn

The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn (松本家住宅南屋敷南東納屋, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Minami-yashiki Nantō Naya) is a one-storey timber barn of the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) on the east side of the South Compound 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 Southeast Barn runs north from the east end of the Tatsumi storehouse along the east side of the utensil storehouse. It has a tiled roof and a building area of 24 m², and the registration includes the gate attached to it. It was renovated in 1989.

A Fence Outside, an Open Shed Inside

What makes this barn interesting is that it shows two quite different faces.

On the east, facing out from the estate, the wall has tall vertical boarding below and white Shikkui plaster above, with no openings. From outside it reads less as a building than as a boarded fence.

Inside the estate, log posts carry a deep overhanging roof over an open, earth-floored space with no walls, used for storage. The broad sheltered area would have been handy for keeping tools and materials dry and for working out of the rain.

Only the southern two and a half bays (ken) are walled in as a room.

Shaping the East Side of the Estate

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the barn that creates the view along the east side of the estate, and it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Together, the Tatsumi storehouse on the south and this barn on the east trace a continuous outline around that corner of the plot. Closed like a fence to the outside and open as a workspace within, the Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn does the job of both boundary and barn.

Seeing the Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn

The Matsumoto Family Residence South Compound Southeast Barn is part of a private home and visitors cannot enter the grounds.

The side worth seeing is the fence-like east face of boarding and white plaster. It may be visible from a lane along the east side of the estate, but the surroundings have not been checked on site. Please keep off private land. Directions are on the Matsumoto Family Residence (Koryo Town) page.