Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall

What Is the Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall?

The Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall (金城増治家住宅石垣, Kinjō Masuharu-ke Jūtaku Ishigaki) is a boundary wall of around 1891 enclosing a homestead in Makabe, Itoman City, Okinawa Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 10 November 2005.

The Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall runs along the front edge of the property. It is built of Ryukyu limestone and measures 30 meters long and 1.7 meters high. The Agency for Cultural Affairs classes it as a structure rather than a building and counts it as one site.

Part of the Homestead

The Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency gives three reasons: it is relatively large, it is built of big stones, and it survives in good condition. On that basis the Agency values it as one of the elements that make up the homestead.

The Agency uses exactly the same phrase for the well and the furu on this property. What counts is less the wall as an isolated structure than its survival as part of the household around the main house. Its job is to mark the front of the property and present the house to the village lane.

What to Look For

The first thing you notice at the Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall is the size of the stones. The Agency's description stresses that big stones were used, and the 1.7-meter face is built up from large blocks. Ryukyu limestone, derived largely from ancient coral reef, is the stone of Okinawa's walls and castle ramparts.

Then look at the top. Along the crest is a line of cut stones, dressed to shape. The contrast between the rougher masonry below and that neat top course gives the wall its character.

Behind the wall the ground is banked up with earth and planted as a hedge. The Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall is really a double enclosure, a stone wall with a living hedge on top of it, which is why greenery shows above the stones when you look from the lane.

Visiting the Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall

The Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence Stone Wall faces the village lane and can be seen from the road at any time. The masonry and the cut stones along the top are easy to examine from the roadside.

The land inside is a private home; the grounds can only be entered as a customer of the eatery in the main house. The wall is still the boundary of a lived-in property, so please do not climb it or disturb the stones. Directions and opening times are on the Kinjo Masuharu Family Residence page.