Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall

What Is the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall?

The Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall (青木家住宅煉瓦塀, Aokike Jūtaku Renga-bei) is a brick boundary wall built in 1915 in Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 1998. It closes the south side of the Aoki estate.

It runs for 42 metres and is counted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs as one structure. Paired with the earthen wall on the north and east, the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall completes the circuit of the estate's boundary.

Why the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall Was Registered

The Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall was registered on 9 October 1998 as number 36-0017, under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency notes that it has been partly altered but still calls it one of the principal elements of the household layout. Where the northern wall is a traditional plastered wall on a stone base, the south side was closed in brick, a choice of material that marks the estate as a product of the 1910s.

With earth on the road side and brick on the south, the boundary is built two ways, and because both walls are registered, the entire perimeter of the estate is protected.

What to Look For at the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall: A Wall That Follows the Ground

The Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall is not a straight wall on level ground. According to the Agency, its eastern stretch climbs alongside the ramp that leads up into the estate, while its western stretch sits on ground a step higher than its surroundings. The line of the wall rises with the slope of the ramp, then rides on the raised ground to the west.

Like the earthen wall, it is braced by buttresses about one ken apart. The difference is that the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall shows them on the outside. The earthen wall keeps its buttresses on the inside and presents a flat face to the road; here the arrangement is reversed. The Agency describes the brick wall as simpler in form, with its outward buttresses as the point of contrast.

Projecting at regular intervals, the buttresses give the long face of the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall a rhythm like a row of piers. Smooth plaster to the north, a ribbed brick face to the south: the same estate shows two different faces at front and back.

Seeing the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall

Because the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall runs beside the ramp into the estate, its eastern stretch can be seen from around the ramp, and the outward buttresses are easy to make out from outside.

The Agency mentions partial alterations but does not say where. As you look along the Aoki Family Residence Brick Wall, watch for places where the colour or bonding of the bricks changes. Entry to the grounds needs to be arranged in advance with the Regional Learning Promotion Division of the Mima City Board of Education (checked 1 October 2026).