Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence

What Are the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence?

The Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence are two thatched farmhouses that stand side by side below the Soja Kibiji Bunkakan museum in Kanbayashi, Soja City, Okayama Prefecture; both were moved here for preservation in 1972 and registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on October 2, 2007.

The two houses began life in different places. The Former Yamate Village Office (旧山手村役場, Kyū Yamate-son Yakuba) was built in the early Meiji period as the home of the first head of Yamate Village, in Jitō-Katayama near today's Yamate branch office of Soja City, and from 1902 to 1968 it served as the village office. The Former Matsui Family Residence Main House (旧松井家住宅主屋) is a late Edo farmhouse that stood beside the old Sanyō Road at Numa, now in Higashi Ward, Okayama City, where it was used as a teahouse. Both were taken down in 1972 and rebuilt on this site.

Their register numbers run in sequence, 33-0161 for the Matsui house and 33-0162 for the village office, and Okayama Prefecture owns and manages both. The surrounding area, known as Kibiji Fudoki-no-Oka, gathers many sites of the ancient Kibi region, and the two houses sit inside the prefectural nature park of the same name.

Walking Around the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence

To reach the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence, go down the steps from the front garden of the Soja Kibiji Bunkakan, at 1252 Kanbayashi. From the garden you can see the five-storied pagoda of Bitchū Kokubunji in the distance. At the bottom of the steps two thatched roofs appear: the larger one, with a hip-and-gable roof, is the village office, and the smaller one with a plain hipped roof is the Matsui house. There is a pond behind the village office.

What makes the spot worth the detour is the chance to compare two very different rural houses in one place: the home of a village notable and an ordinary roadside farmhouse. The village office measures 7.5 by 5 bays with a building area of 169 square meters; the Matsui house measures 5 by 3 bays and 60 square meters. Each building's construction and highlights are covered on its own page.

Heading southeast, a walking route leads past the Kōmorizuka burial mound and the site of the Bitchū provincial nunnery to Bitchū Kokubunji. From the museum to the temple is about 1.8 kilometers, roughly 20 minutes on foot.

Visiting the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence

Okayama Prefecture and the Okayama Tourism Federation give the viewing hours of the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence as 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for both buildings. Neither lists an admission fee or a closing day, and neither says whether visitors may step inside or take photographs, so follow any notices on site. The neighboring Soja Kibiji Bunkakan is a separate facility, open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and closed on Mondays and over the New Year holidays.

By train, the nearest station is JR Hattori on the Kibi (Momotarō) Line; from the station to the museum is about 3.4 kilometers, roughly 50 minutes on foot. By car, it is about 10 minutes from the Okayama-Sōja interchange on the Okayama Expressway or the Kurashiki interchange on the San'yō Expressway. Okayama Prefecture also mentions a 10-minute walk from the Kibiji Motenashi-no-Yakata stop on the Soja Yamate loop bus; check whether the bus is running before relying on it. Kibiji Motenashi-no-Yakata has parking for 50 cars.