Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Main House

What Is the Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Main House?

The Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Main House (旧松野家住宅(野口家住宅)主屋, Kyū Matsuno-ke Jūtaku, Noguchi-ke Jūtaku Omoya) is the dwelling of an old family in a hill hamlet in Umeno, Yamato-cho, Saga City, Saga Prefecture; built around 1909, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 6 March 2024.

It is a two-storey timber house roofed in Sangawara-buki pantiles, 205 square meters in building area, and it is the lived-in heart of the four registered items on the estate. Saga Prefecture dates it to about 1909 on two grounds: what the family has handed down, and a date inscribed on the painted sliding doors.

Why It Was Registered

The Main House was registered as number 41-0131, as a model of its type. What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is not the size of the house but the fittings that announce the family's standing.

Two are named. One is the Shikidai, the formal step-up entrance reserved for guests. The other is the Buddhist altar room, finished in fuki-urushi, a technique of applying lacquer and wiping it off again and again until the wood glows while its grain still shows. That care went into the room at the spiritual center of the house, which says a good deal about how a leading family in a mountain village chose to present itself.

Two Roofs at Right Angles

The Former Matsuno Family Residence Main House joins two hipped-and-gabled Irimoya-zukuri roofs at a right angle, which gives the whole building an L-shaped plan, known in Japanese as Kaneore.

Inside, a broad earth-floored Doma work area takes up the east side. West of it, six rooms are laid out in two rows of three. At the upper, western end of the front, the principal Zashiki reception room pushes forward, and that projecting room appears to form one arm of the L.

From the front, look for the point where the two ridgelines meet and for the room jutting out beneath one of them. The Agency describes the crossing roofs and the projecting room in the same breath, and seeing where the room juts out helps tie the roof shape to the plan inside.

In the captions to its photographs, the Agency calls this main room the Ozashiki, which appears to be the name used locally.

Visiting

The Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Main House is a private home and its interior is not open. We found no announcement of public openings. Please view it only from outside the property.

A front view and a photograph of the Ozashiki are posted on the Agency for Cultural Affairs database. The lacquered altar room and the shikidai entrance are inside the house, so visitors will not normally see them. Directions and general visiting notes for the estate are on the Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) page.