Matsumura Family Residence Inner Wall

A Wall and Garden Gate Before the Entrance

The Matsumura Family Residence Inner Wall (松村家住宅内塀, Matsumura-ke Jūtaku Uchibei) is an early-Meiji-period timber wall in Shimaizumi 2-chome, Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on August 3, 2006. It stands inside the estate of the Matsumura family, village headmen of Minami-Shimaizumi, running west and then south from the formal Shikidai entrance of the main house and turning to pass in front of the north side of Storehouse No. 3.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates it to the early Meiji period and records it as a tiled timber wall 14 meters long, with a gate. Of the estate's two registered walls, the outer wall encloses the plot; this inner wall divides the space within it.

Dividing Two Gardens

The Matsumura Family Residence Inner Wall was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country (registration number 27-0379).

The Agency gives it two jobs. It screens off the garden of the back reception rooms on the west side of the main house, and it frames the forecourt in front of the entrance. The shikidai entrance was where a headman's house received official visitors, so the forecourt was the first thing a guest saw. The inner wall draws a line between the relaxed garden of the back rooms and the more formal forecourt, separating the public front of the estate from its private interior.

A Raised Garden Gate and an Arched Wicket

The wall is timber-framed in the Shinkabe manner, with posts left exposed on the face of the wall, and capped with Sangawara-buki pantiles. The exposed posts divide the wall into regular panels, giving it the calm look expected inside an estate rather than on its boundary.

The feature to look for on the Matsumura Family Residence Inner Wall is the garden gate near the entrance. It is a small gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) gate with a pantiled roof whose ridge is set higher than the wall's own roof, so the gate's position stands out along the low run of the wall.

South of the garden gate is a wicket, a small doorway one stoops to pass through, whose top is arched rather than straight. In a wall and gate built entirely of straight lines, it is the one curve.

Seeing the Inner Wall

The Matsumura Family Residence Inner Wall stands inside the gatehouse, in front of the main house. The estate is a private home with no public opening announced as of September 2026, so the wall and garden gate cannot be visited.

From the road you can see the gatehouse and outer wall, but the inner wall lies behind them. Please do not look or photograph through the gate. Directions are on the Matsumura Family Residence page.