Kamamura Family Residence Courtyard Earthen Wall

What the Courtyard Earthen Wall Is

The Kamamura Family Residence Courtyard Earthen Wall (鎌村家住宅中庭土塀) is a tile-capped earthen wall from the late Edo period in Boso, Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2007.

The structure field of the national database reads simply: earthen wall, tiled, 16 meters long. That makes it the longer of the two walls that survive on the property. As the name says, it relates to the inner courtyard of the homestead.

Why It Was Registered

The wall was listed with the rest of the homestead as a structure contributing to the historic landscape. Its registration number is 36-0068.

It dates from the late Edo period, the same phase as the 1839 main house, when the basic layout of the homestead took shape. It is older than the Meiji storehouse, barn, bathhouse, toilet block and wells.

Mima City says the plot seems once to have been enclosed by earthen walls. The 16-meter Courtyard Earthen Wall and the 14-meter West Earthen Wall are what remain of that enclosure. A wall inside the compound would have divided the more formal garden in front of the main house from the working and service areas.

A Gap in the Record

The Kamamura Family Residence Courtyard Earthen Wall has a problem the other eight entries do not. In both the national database and Cultural Heritage Online, its description field carries the same text as the East Well: a paragraph about a stone well curb and shaft depth, not about a wall.

As a result, the wall's exact position, its height and width, and the type of tile on its top cannot be confirmed from the published databases. What can be stated with confidence is that it is a tiled earthen wall of the late Edo period, 16 meters long, registered on December 5, 2007.

The West Earthen Wall is described as 0.5 meters wide at the base and 1.5 meters high, with sangawara tile on top. Built at the same time for the same household, the courtyard wall may well be similar, but no such figures are recorded for it.

Seeing It and Visiting

If you have the chance to see the Kamamura Family Residence Courtyard Earthen Wall, pay attention to which spaces it separates. If it was built as an inner divider, as the name suggests, its line relative to the main house and outbuildings should show how the late Edo household organized its yard.

The Kamamura Family Residence is privately owned and lived in. Visits require an advance request to the owner, and it is best to have the owner point out where the courtyard wall stands. Earthen walls are fragile, so do not touch it, and ask about photography when you apply.