Former Matsui Family Residence Main House

What Is the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House?

The Former Matsui Family Residence Main House is a thatched farmhouse of the late Edo period (1830 to 1867) that once served as a teahouse on the old Sanyō Road, now standing in Kanbayashi, Soja City, Okayama Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on October 2, 2007.

In Japanese it is 旧松井家住宅主屋 (Kyū Matsui-ke Jūtaku Shuoku). The Agency for Cultural Affairs reads the last word as shuoku, while Okayama Prefecture's information sheet gives omoya; both simply mean "main house."

The house did not start out in Soja. It was built beside the old Sanyō Road at Numa, in what is now Higashi Ward, Okayama City, as a farmhouse that also sold tea and rest to people on the highway. In 1972 it was taken down and rebuilt on its present site so that it could be preserved. Okayama Prefecture owns it today.

Why the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House Is Registered

The Former Matsui Family Residence Main House is entry 33-0161 in the national register, added in the 56th round of registrations under the criterion of having become a model of design. The agency records a single-storey timber house with a thatched roof and a building area of 60 square meters.

The frame is 5 bays long (Ketayuki) and 3 bays deep (Harima). Above it sits a hipped roof (Yosemune-zukuri) of thatch (Kayabuki), with the entrance on the long side (Hirairi). Narrow tiled eaves (Hisashi) are added along the front and the back, below the thatch.

Inside, the right half as you face the house is an earthen-floored work area (Doma). The left half holds the living rooms, laid out as four rooms whose partitions do not line up, a staggered version of the farmhouse plan known as Yomadori. There is no veranda. The agency's assessment is short: the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House preserves a plain, uncomplicated form of farmhouse building. That plainness is the point. It shows what an ordinary roadside house looked like, rather than the home of a wealthy family.

Soja City points out that the simple plan hides some careful thinking about comfort. Straw and earth laid over the ceiling insulate the rooms below the thatch, and openings around the doma let air move through the house.

What to Look For at the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House

Thatch above, tile below

Stand back and look at the roofline of the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House. The thick thatch rises to a single ridge, and the thin band of tiled eaves at the front and back cuts across its lower edge. The tile was a practical addition: it keeps rain off the walls and doorways where people came and went.

The earthen floor on the right

From the front, the doma is on your right. In a roadside teahouse this would have been where travelers could step in without taking off their sandals, so the layout suits the house's working life as well as its farm life.

A compact house beside a grand one

The Former Yamate Village Office next door makes a useful comparison. Okayama Prefecture lists it at 7.5 by 5 bays with a hip-and-gable roof (Irimoya-zukuri), built for the doctor who became the first village head. The Former Matsui Family Residence Main House, at 5 by 3 bays with a simple hipped roof and no veranda, is the everyday counterpart. Seeing the two side by side shows the range of rural houses in this part of Okayama in the 19th century.

Visiting the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House

The Former Matsui Family Residence Main House stands next to the Former Yamate Village Office, at the foot of the steps below the Soja Kibiji Bunkakan museum. The front of the house, with the doma on the right, is the side to start from; walk around to the back to see the second band of tiled eaves.

Official sources do not say whether visitors may step inside the Former Matsui Family Residence Main House, and no photography policy is published, so follow any notices on site. Viewing hours and directions for both houses are gathered on the page for the Former Yamate Village Office and Former Matsui Family Residence.