Matsuura Family Residence Main House

About the Matsuura Family Residence Main House

The Matsuura Family Residence Main House (松浦家住宅主屋, Matsuura-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a timber house built around 1910 in Kudo, Oji-cho, Kitakatsuragi-gun, Nara Prefecture, and was entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2010. It was altered in 1946 and again in 1955.

It was the heart of the home built by Matsuura Otokichi, whose Matsuura-gumi dug railway tunnels for Japan's big contractors, and it stands near the middle of the plot. The former examination room is attached to its south side, and a short corridor leads north to the annex. Of the six registered structures at the Matsuura Family Residence, the main house is the only one registered on different grounds from the rest.

Why the Main House Was Registered

The main house was registered as "a model of design", while the other five structures were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is the zashiki, the formal reception room. It has a tokonoma alcove, display shelves and a Tsukeshoin built-in writing desk, and it is dressed with carved Ranma transoms and sliding doors.

The National Council for the Utilization of Modern Heritage adds its own list: a roof with a pronounced convex curve (mukuri), a six-room plan, heavy beams and Sashigamoi lintel beams, the tsukeshoin and painted sliding doors. Together, it says, these set the Matsuura Family Residence Main House apart from an ordinary farmhouse. The council links this to Otokichi's trade as a tunnel contractor only tentatively, as a guess.

Roofline and Floor Plan of the Matsuura Main House

The house measures 18 m by 10 m. Its ridge runs east to west under an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles. Toward the east end the roof steps down in an Ochimune, and a raised Koshi-yane ventilating roof sits on top of that lower section.

The plan divides the same way. The west half holds six rooms, among them the butsuma, where the family Buddhist altar is kept, and the zashiki, with verandas along both the south and north sides. The best rooms are gathered to the west, and the stepped roof marks the change from west to east, a useful cue when you look at the Matsuura Family Residence Main House from outside.

The records disagree on the number of storeys. The structure field in the Agency's database says one storey, but the descriptive note on the same page calls it a Tsushi-nikai, a house with a low attic floor under the roof, and a guide published for an Oji Town heritage walk describes a tsushi-nikai with a partly single-storey section. If the lowered eastern section is the single-storey part, the note and the town's description agree, but the reason for the structure field's wording could not be confirmed. The building area is 179 m².

Seeing the Matsuura Family Residence Main House

The Matsuura Family Residence Main House is the center of a private home, and its interior is not open (checked October 2026). The zashiki and tsukeshoin can be seen only during special openings run by Oji Town, such as the nationwide open days for modern heritage in November 2023. The main house stands in the middle of the plot, behind the gate nagaya and the former rice storehouse on the east side, and how much of it can be seen from outside could not be confirmed. There is no official guidance on photography. Directions and contact details are on the Matsuura Family Residence page.