Yagi Family Residence Hinpun

What Is the Yagi Family Residence Hinpun?

The Yagi Family Residence Hinpun (屋宜家住宅ヒンプン, Yagi-ke Jūtaku Hinpun) in Ōton, Yaese Town, Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, is a freestanding screen wall of Ryukyu limestone built in 1952 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2009.

A hinpun is the freestanding wall an Okinawan homestead places inside its entrance, squarely in front of the main house. The national record lists this one as a stone structure 3.6 meters long, counted as one unit. It is one of five registered elements of the Yagi homestead, with the main house, asagi, well and stone wall, and it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

The Stonework of the Hinpun

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yagi Family Residence Hinpun stands south of the main house. It is built of Ryukyu limestone from Minatogawa in the same town: squared blocks laid in five courses on a footing, rising to 1.6 meters, 3.6 meters long and 24 centimeters thick.

Each course uses only two or three stones, and some of them are nearly 3 meters long. The family adds that the top two courses are joined with hooked, interlocking cuts. The Agency describes the wall as weighty and characteristic of an Okinawan homestead.

At 24 centimeters thick and 1.6 meters high, the Yagi Family Residence Hinpun reads almost like a row of upright stone slabs. Building it from a few long blocks leaves a flat face with very few joints.

What a Hinpun Does

The family explains that the word hinpun is said to come from the Chinese for a folding screen. Set directly in front of the main house, it blocks the view into the home and keeps out ill fortune. In Okinawan belief, evil spirits cannot turn corners and travel only in straight lines, so a hinpun turns them back.

It also shaped how people came and went. According to the family, men used to pass on the right of the hinpun and women on the left. The right side was the shortest route to the ichibanza, the guest room, and the left the shortest route to the kitchen. Nobody keeps to that division today.

The main house has no front door, so the veranda and tatami rooms appear as soon as you step around the screen. The family's remark that once you pass the hinpun you are already inside the house sums up this arrangement well.

What to Look for at the Hinpun

Stand in front of the Yagi Family Residence Hinpun and count the stones in each course. Two or three blocks span the whole length, and the longest approach 3 meters. It is this use of long cut stones that the Agency singles out.

In the top two courses, look at the joints. The interlocking cuts the family describes are places where neighboring stones are notched into each other, and tracing the joint lines shows how these courses differ from the three below.

Compare its height with the stone wall as well. The boundary wall along the south of the plot stands 1.3 meters, while the Yagi Family Residence Hinpun rises to 1.6 meters, close to an adult's eye level and high enough to work as a screen.

Visiting the Hinpun

The Yagi Family Residence Hinpun stands inside the private homestead, at the end of the path through the stone wall. Customers of the Yagiya restaurant walk past it on their way in. You can go around it on either side and see for yourself how the right and left routes lead to different parts of the main house.

Do not lean on the wall or put anything on top of it, and do not enter the grounds outside opening hours or on closing days. There is no official guidance on photography; take care not to include other guests in your pictures.