Muramatsu Family Residence Main House

A Main House Set Back from the Road

The Muramatsu Family Residence Main House (村松家住宅主屋) is a family home of 1865 in Momozono, Minami Alps City, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 31, 2003 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 2-storey timber house with a tiled roof and a building area of 190 square metres, together with a gate that has a small wicket door and a gate wall; registration number 19-0041.

Layout and Ridge Tag

Within a plot that fronts the Sunshin Okan, the old road through Momozono, the Muramatsu Family Residence Main House stands well back from the road and faces south (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It measures 9 and a half ken by 6 ken (1 ken is about 1.8 metres), with an earth-floored Doma on the east and 9 rooms laid out in 3 rows on the higher, western side.

A ridge tag records the master carpenter Wakabayashi (若林駕蔵) and his deputy Nagasawa (長澤彦右衛門), among others (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency dates the house to 1865, with alterations early in the Meiji era. Minami Alps City, however, states that the Muramatsu Family Residence Main House is known to have existed before 1849 and was later remodelled and moved on rollers several times. The two accounts differ.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the Muramatsu Family Residence Main House as a model of design. Its ridge tag fixes the late Edo construction and names the builders, and the house still carries the changes made after it was moved in the Meiji era, so it shows how an old family on the Sunshin Okan kept adapting its home.

What to Look For

The detail to look for on the Muramatsu Family Residence Main House is the arched framing around the upper-floor openings. The Agency suggests it was added when the house was moved on rollers in connection with building the merchant storehouse of 1873, a Western-looking touch on a Japanese house that still shows that Meiji-era change.

At the front, a gate with a small wicket door and a gate wall are included in the registration (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The Muramatsu Family Residence Main House is a private home, and no official information on interior access was found (checked October 2026). It stands back from the road, so view it from the road side and do not go through the gate.