Hoashi Family Branch Residence (Shoseki Furokan) Wall

What the Wall Is

The Hoashi Family Branch Residence (Shoseki Furokan) Wall (帆足家分家住宅（松石不老館）塀) is a mid-Meiji boundary wall in Hetsugi Honmachi, Nakahetsugi, Oita City, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 10 November 2005. It runs along the road on the northern part of the property's east side, continuing north from the main house, and measures 13.7 metres. A small garden gate stands at its southern end.

The wall rises from a base of cut stone. Its lower part is clapboard; above, the posts are left exposed in the Shinkabe manner and the panels finished in white Shikkui plaster, pierced by two lattice windows. A pantile cap runs along the top. The garden gate is a Munamon turned at a right angle to the wall, with wing walls and an opening 1.8 metres wide.

The ACA database gives two figures: 14 metres in its structural summary and 13.7 metres in its commentary. The first is presumably rounded.

Why It Was Listed

The Hoashi Family Branch Residence Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

It gives the northern half of the property its street face. To the south, the 2-story main house fronts the road; to the north, the wall carries on. With no gap between house and wall, the east side of the compound reads as one continuous frontage.

The lattice windows are telling. They let light and air into the garden north of the main house and let those inside glance at the street. The wall closes the property off without sealing it, which suits a merchant family living on a market street.

So is the placement of the garden gate. According to the ACA, there is a garden on the north side of the main house, with the pawn storehouse in one corner. The gate at the wall's southern end reads as the way into that garden directly from the street.

What to Look For

Read the Hoashi Family Branch Residence Wall from the bottom up: cut stone, then horizontal clapboard, then plastered panels between exposed posts, then tiles. Four materials in four level bands, held steady for 13.7 metres.

The two lattice windows are the only shadows in the white face of the wall. Step back and you can see how their placement sets its rhythm.

At the southern end the garden gate swings its ridge through ninety degrees, so its roof faces the street while the wall's roof runs alongside it. At 1.8 metres wide it is a modest gate, but it marks the end of the wall with a clear full stop.

Visiting

The Hoashi Family Branch Residence (Shoseki Furokan) Wall stands on the property line and can be seen from the street on the east side. The ground behind it and beyond the garden gate is private and not open to the public (checked 25 September 2026).

Please do not look in through the lattice windows. From the far side of the road you can follow the whole frontage from the main house along the wall to the garden gate.

Directions to the site as a whole are on the Hoashi Family Branch Residence page.