Nakagawa Family Residence Brick Wall

About the Nakagawa Family Residence Brick Wall

The Nakagawa Family Residence Brick Wall (中川家住宅煉瓦塀, Nakagawa-ke Jūtaku Renga-bei) is a brick boundary wall built around 1915 in Imazushicho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 19, 2014. It is 20 m long and is registered as 1 structure.

It is the only one of the five registered Nakagawa structures that is not a building, and it runs along the southern edge of the plot. In a compound of timber and plaster, it is where brick, a modern material, shows most plainly.

A Wall Between Factory and Home

On the lot immediately south of the Nakagawa Family Residence Brick Wall, the family once ran its textile factory. The wall was built to divide that factory from the house.

The Nakagawa moved to Imazushicho in 1914 and continued weaving until the years before the Second World War. Their looms worked just south of the living quarters, with brick in between. The factory is gone, but the Nakagawa Brick Wall still records a merchant household whose home and trade stood side by side.

How the Nakagawa Brick Wall Is Built

The Nakagawa Brick Wall is built in two layers, stone below and brick above. At the base is a retaining wall of granite laid diagonally in Tanizumi fashion, topped by a course of flat bedding stones that carries the brickwork.

The bricks are laid in Stretcher bond (stretcher bond), long faces outward, rising 15 courses. At the top, two courses step out one after the other to form a projecting cap like a Coping stone coping stone, a neat way of finishing off the wall's head.

On the north face, the house side, buttresses are set at intervals of about 1 ken (about 1.8 m). The factory side to the south is left flat, while the stiffening piers line up on the residential side.

Why the Nakagawa Brick Wall Is Registered

The Nakagawa Family Residence Brick Wall was registered as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs and Nara City both describe it as a wall that lends a modern note to a traditional townhouse property.

Among a latticed townhouse, a white-plastered storehouse and a courtyard annex, this granite-and-brick wall is the one element in a different material. The choice of brick for the line between a Taisho-era merchant's home and his factory says a good deal about the period.

Seeing the Nakagawa Brick Wall

The Nakagawa Brick Wall lies along the southern boundary of the plot, and whether it can be seen from the lane could not be confirmed as of October 2026. The lot to the south was once the factory, and its present use is unknown. There is no public opening, and the neighboring land is not open to visitors. The compound hosts reservation-only cultural programs as Machiya Imazushi, so ask whether the wall can be seen when you book. Directions and booking details are on the Nakagawa Family Residence (Nara City) page.