Matsumura Family Residence

A Village Headman's Estate in Shimaizumi

The Matsumura Family Residence (松村家住宅, Matsumura-ke Jūtaku) is an Edo-period village headman's estate in Shimaizumi 2-chome, Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, whose main house, nagayamon gatehouse, three storehouses, inner wall and outer wall were registered as 7 Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on August 3, 2006. The oldest of them, the main house, is dated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs database to the mid-Edo period, a range it gives as 1661 to 1750.

According to Habikino City, the Matsumura family served as Shōya, or village headman, of Minami-Shimaizumi village throughout the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, members of the family sat in the Sakai Prefectural Assembly and later the Osaka Prefectural Assembly. A headman's house doubled as the village office, so the estate needed more than living rooms: it had to receive officials and guests in proper form.

The plot covers roughly 840 tsubo, about 2,800 square meters. With the gatehouse facing the street, storehouses before and behind the main house, and walls marking off garden and road, the whole layout survives because all 7 structures were registered together.

The Seven Registered Structures

The Matsumura Family Residence structures carry consecutive registration numbers, 27-0374 to 27-0380, and were gazetted on August 24, 2006. Together they span roughly two centuries of building, from the mid-Edo period to the early Meiji period.

• Main House (mid-Edo period): a large thatched farmhouse with a building area of 311 square meters
• Nagayamon Gate and Storehouse No. 3 (late Edo period, 1751 to 1829): the south front of the estate
• Storehouses No. 1 and No. 2 (end of the Edo period, 1830 to 1867): the pair behind the main house
• Inner Wall and Outer Wall (early Meiji period): one screens the forecourt, the other runs along the south and east edges of the plot

The criteria split neatly. Only the main house was registered as a structure that "has become a model of design," recognized as a surviving example of a Kawachi headman's house with a yamato-mune roof. The other 6 were registered for "contributing to the historic landscape of the country," as the parts that shape the estate as seen from outside.

One caveat on dating. Osaka Bunkazai Navi, a guide run by the Osaka Society of Architects and Building Engineers and related groups, describes the main part of the main house as probably built between the end of the Edo period and the Meiji era, which does not match the database's mid-Edo date. The pages on this site follow the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and note the difference.

Reading the Layout

The Matsumura Family Residence faces south. The nagayamon gatehouse stretches east to west at the center of the south edge, with Storehouse No. 3 joined to its west end. Gate and storehouse meet the street almost as one continuous wall, and this is the face of the estate.

Through the gate, the main house stands near the middle of the plot. Its eastern half is the earth-floored Doma; its western half holds raised rooms, with a formal Shikidai entrance at the southwest for receiving guests. The doma entrance lies north of the gatehouse. The inner wall runs west and south from the shikidai entrance, dividing the garden of the back reception rooms from the forecourt.

Two storehouses stand behind the main house. Storehouse No. 2 is north of the doma and Storehouse No. 1 north of the back rooms; both run east to west and open their doors on the south side, toward the house. Together they form the north edge of the estate.

The outer wall starts at the southeast end of the gatehouse, runs east, turns north at the southeast corner of the plot and continues along the road on the east side, about 39 meters in all.

Habikino City points out that this arrangement of gate, attendants' rooms and storehouses, together with the floor plan of the main house, closely resembles the Yoshimura Family Residence, also in Shimaizumi, and reads it as a sign of standing close to that of a senior headman. The Yoshimura house lies about 350 meters north of the Matsumura Family Residence in a straight line.

A Yamato-mune House

Yamato-mune is a farmhouse roof type known across the Nara Basin and into Kawachi. A steep thatched main roof is cut off at both ends by white plastered gable walls capped with tiles, and a lower tiled roof is attached to one side. At the Matsumura Family Residence, the thatched main block of the house carries a lower tiled wing (otoshimune) and tiled lean-to roofs in the round-and-flat Hongawarabuki style.

Combining thatch and tile in one building is often explained as both a fire precaution, since tile covers the area around the kitchen hearth, and a statement of rank, with the tall white-walled gables visible from a distance. When the Agency for Cultural Affairs database calls the main house a surviving Kawachi headman's residence of the yamato-mune type, it is pointing to both the roof and a plan suited to a headman's household.

Visiting and Access

The Matsumura Family Residence is a private home and is not normally open to visitors. Osaka Bunkazai Navi lists it as closed to viewing, and as of September 2026 no regular public opening has been announced. Plan to see it from the street only; the grounds and buildings are off limits.

From outside, the easiest parts to see are the south front formed by the gatehouse and Storehouse No. 3, and the outer wall that wraps from the south edge to the east side. The thatched main house and the rear storehouses sit inside the gate and walls. No photography rules have been published, but this is someone's home: avoid lingering at the gate or pointing a lens through it.

The nearest station is Takawashi on the Kintetsu Minami-Osaka Line. The residence is about 500 meters northwest of the station in a straight line, roughly a 10-minute walk. Eganoshō Station, one stop west, is about 650 meters away and takes about the same time on foot (both estimates are from maps). No parking is provided.

Enquiries about the Matsumura Family Residence go to the Cultural Properties and World Heritage Office, Lifelong Learning Department, Habikino City Board of Education (telephone 072-958-1111, main switchboard).