Iritakenishi Family Residence Maigusuku

What is the Iritakenishi Family Residence Maigusuku?

The Iritakenishi Family Residence Maigusuku (入嵩西家住宅マイグスク, Iritakenishi-ke Jūtaku Maigusuku) is a stone screen wall built around 1914 between the main house and the road at the Iritakenishi Family Residence in Shinkawa, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 31, 2007.

It runs 5.7 meters east to west and is 25 centimeters thick and 1.5 meters high. Okinawan homesteads traditionally set a freestanding wall like this between the gate and the house; on the main island of Okinawa it is usually called a hinpun. At the Iritakenishi residence, the wall in that position was registered under the name maigusuku.

Why It Was Registered: Weight and Dignity at the Front of the Compound

The Iritakenishi maigusuku was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises its solid, substantial appearance, fitting for a large homestead, and the way it works with the main house and the stone wall to form a traditional compound.

Sources differ by a year on its date. The national database gives around 1914, while Ishigaki City gives around 1913. The basic information on this page follows the national record.

Ishigaki City describes it as dressed blocks of a local stone called awaishi. The southern boundary wall was only rebuilt from rough Ryukyu limestone into dressed stone around 1948, so the maigusuku was built of neatly cut blocks more than 30 years earlier.

What to Look For: Three Courses and Single-Stone Ends

The construction of the Iritakenishi Family Residence Maigusuku is spare. Three courses of cut stone form the body of the wall, each end is a single upright block, and a Coping stone coping stone is laid along the top.

At 1.5 meters, it stands at roughly adult eye level. That height is what lets it do its job as a screen, keeping the house from being looked into from the road.

At only 25 centimeters thick, it reads almost like a single stone panel set on edge. The blocks are about as thick as those of the southern boundary wall, so it is worth comparing the two around the gateway.

Visiting the Maigusuku

The Iritakenishi maigusuku stands within the grounds of a private home, between the main house and the southern road. The grounds are closed, so viewing is from the road only, and how much of the wall is visible from there has not been confirmed.

Please do not step into the gateway or stand staring in; a short look from the road is enough. Photographs of the whole wall can be found in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database.