Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Outbuilding

What Is the Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Outbuilding?

The Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Outbuilding (旧松野家住宅(野口家住宅)小屋, Kyū Matsuno-ke Jūtaku, Noguchi-ke Jūtaku Koya) is an outbuilding with a formal tatami room on an old family estate in Umeno, Yamato-cho, Saga City, Saga Prefecture; built in the early Meiji period, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 6 March 2024.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs defines early Meiji as 1868 to 1882, which makes this the oldest of the four registered items on the estate, about a generation older than the main house of around 1909.

It stands east of the main house in the northeast corner of the plot, facing west, and covers 61 square meters.

A Lodging for the Village Youth Group

The Outbuilding was registered as number 41-0132, on the same ground as the main house, as a model of its type. The Agency adds that it also matters as a record of local custom, because it was used as the lodging of the seinengumi, the village youth group.

Youth groups of this kind were made up of the young people of a settlement, and their lodging was, as a rule, where they gathered and spent the night. The Former Matsuno Family Residence Outbuilding was a storeroom, yet it also held a room that could take in such a gathering. The building shows a farm outbuilding doubling as a place for village life.

Storeroom and Parlor Under One Roof

The building has two parts. The storeroom held farm tools, firewood and the like.

The other part is a Zashiki with a full set of fittings: a Tokonoma display alcove, a Tenbukuro cupboard above, and a hira-shoin window set flush with the wall rather than projecting, with a veranda running round the room. It is a properly furnished reception room, which is not what one expects to find next to a store of tools and firewood.

The structure is a Tsushi-nikai, a low upper storey under a Sangawara-buki pantile roof. The structure field of the Agency database reads two-storey timber building while its description says tsushi two-storey, which suggests an upper floor with a low ceiling. On the upper floor, the gable-end walls are finished as Ōkabe, plastered over so that no posts show.

Visiting

The Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) Outbuilding stands within a private estate and its interior is not open. We found no announcement of public openings. Set in the northeast corner of the plot, it is likely to be hard to see from the road.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database has photographs of the front and the interior, captioned with the katakana name Koya. Directions and general visiting notes are on the Former Matsuno Family Residence (Noguchi Family Residence) page.