Matsumura Family Residence Main House

The Heart of a Kawachi Headman's Estate

The Matsumura Family Residence Main House (松村家住宅主屋, Matsumura-ke Jūtaku Shuoku) is a mid-Edo-period thatched farmhouse in Shimaizumi 2-chome, Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on August 3, 2006. It stands at the center of the estate of the Matsumura family, hereditary Shōya (village headmen) of Minami-Shimaizumi, and is the principal building among the 7 registered structures there.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates it to the mid-Edo period, a range it gives as 1661 to 1750. It is a single-story timber building with a building area of 311 square meters. The storehouses on the same estate measure from 22 square meters to 31 square meters each, so the main house alone accounts for most of the built area.

Why It Was Registered

The Matsumura Family Residence Main House was registered under the criterion of having "become a model of design" (registration number 27-0374). The gate, storehouses and walls of the estate were all registered for their contribution to the historic landscape; the main house is the only one registered for its design.

The Agency's description values it as a surviving Kawachi headman's residence with a yamato-mune roof. Yamato-mune is a farmhouse type of the Nara Basin and the Kawachi plain: a steep thatched roof whose gable ends are closed by white plastered walls, with a lower tiled roof attached alongside. Here the thatched main block is joined by a lower tiled wing, the otoshimune, and by lean-to roofs, both laid in the round-and-flat Hongawarabuki manner. Thatch and heavy formal tile sit side by side on one building, and that contrast gives the Matsumura house its outline.

Habikino City notes that the floor plan closely resembles that of the Yoshimura Family Residence nearby in Shimaizumi, and takes this as a mark of the standing of a senior headman's family.

Eleven Bays and a Sukiya-Style Back Wing

The main block measures 11 ken along the ridge by 5.5 ken deep (a ken is a traditional bay of roughly 1.8 meters). The eastern side is the earth-floored Doma, used for cooking and work, and the western side holds 4 raised rooms. The doma entrance lies north of the nagayamon gatehouse on the south side of the estate.

In front of the 8-mat room at the southwest corner is a Shikidai, a low boarded step used as a formal entrance for guests of rank. The house thus had two ways in: the doma door for family and servants, and the shikidai for official visitors. Since a headman's house also served as the village office, that separation is the clearest clue to how the Matsumura Family Residence Main House was used.

West of the main block is a back wing of two reception rooms, 8 mats and 6 mats, which the Agency describes as being in the Sukiya-zukuri manner, the lighter, tea-house-influenced style of Japanese interiors. The inner wall running west from the shikidai entrance divides the garden of these rooms from the forecourt, making the back wing the most private part of the estate.

Two Accounts of Its Age

Sources differ on the date of the Matsumura Family Residence Main House. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives the mid-Edo period, while Osaka Bunkazai Navi, a guide run by the Osaka Society of Architects and Building Engineers and related groups, suggests that the main part was probably built between the end of the Edo period and the Meiji era.

This site follows the Agency's date. Thatched farmhouses are rethatched and enlarged over generations, so different parts often have different ages; a published survey would be needed to settle which part dates from when.

Seeing the Main House

The Matsumura Family Residence Main House is a private home and its interior is not open to the public. No public opening had been announced as of September 2026, and Osaka Bunkazai Navi lists it as closed to viewing.

Because it stands in the middle of the plot behind the gatehouse and walls, the house cannot be seen whole from the street. Visitors should keep to the road in front of the gatehouse on the south side and refrain from photographing through the gate. Directions are on the Matsumura Family Residence page.