Matsumura Family Residence Nagayamon Gate

The South Front of the Estate

The Matsumura Family Residence Nagayamon Gate (松村家住宅長屋門, Matsumura-ke Jūtaku Nagayamon) is a late-Edo-period Nagayamon, a gatehouse with rooms built into it, 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 south edge of the estate of the Matsumura family, village headmen of Minami-Shimaizumi, just south of the doma entrance of the main house, and serves as the main gate.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates it to the late Edo period, a range it gives as 1751 to 1829. It is a single-story timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 62 square meters.

A Gate with Rooms and a Storeroom

The Matsumura Family Residence Nagayamon Gate was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country (registration number 27-0378).

It measures 7 ken long by 2 ken deep (a ken is a traditional bay of roughly 1.8 meters), with its ridge running east to west. East of the passage is a storeroom; west of it are two 6-mat attendants' rooms, where the retinue of a visitor could wait and household servants could lodge. Folding rooms into the gate itself is what defines the nagayamon type.

Habikino City notes that this combination of attendants' rooms and storeroom in the gatehouse closely resembles the one at the Yoshimura Family Residence nearby, and sees it as evidence of the family's standing as senior headmen. A gate that also held a storeroom suited a household that handled village taxes and its own stores.

Two Kinds of Tile, Front and Back

The roof is the first thing to look at. The east end is finished in the hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri form, and the two slopes are covered differently: the south slope in Hongawarabuki, the heavy round-and-flat formal tiling, and the north slope in lighter Sangawara-buki pantiles.

Hongawarabuki needs more tiles and more labor. The builders used it only on the side facing the road and settled for the plainer tile on the side facing into the estate. It is a clear case of spending where the public would see it.

The front wall has horizontal lattice windows (Renji-mado) and a projecting window that break up the long elevation. From the attendants' rooms, those windows also look out over the road in front of the gate.

Storehouse No. 3 is joined to the west end of the Matsumura Family Residence Nagayamon Gate, and the two together form the south front of the estate. The outer wall runs east from the gatehouse's southeast corner.

Seeing the Gate

Of all the buildings on the estate, the Matsumura Family Residence Nagayamon Gate is the easiest to see. From the road on the south side, you can make out the hongawarabuki south slope, the lattice and projecting windows, and the irimoya gable at the east end. The pantiled north slope faces inward and cannot be seen from the street.

Beyond the gate is a private home, and no public opening had been announced as of September 2026. Do not pass through the gate or photograph through it, and keep any exterior photography brief and clear of passing traffic. Directions are on the Matsumura Family Residence page.