Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed

About the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed

The Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed (矢吹家住宅道具蔵及び木小屋, Yabuki-ke Jūtaku Dōgugura oyobi Kigoya) is a single-storey building of the early Showa era (1926 to 1945) on the northern part of the east side of the Yabuki family estate in Narukawa, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

The Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed is one building in two halves: a single-storey clay-walled tool store at the south end, and a single-storey board-floored room and woodshed at the north end. It is tiled, with a building area of 42 m².

One Long Storehouse to the Street

Although the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed holds two quite different spaces, on the street side it is made to look like a single long storehouse. The lower walls are Namako-kabe, and a raised plaster band, the Hachimaki, runs along the top of the wall.

A kigoya is a shed for firewood and similar fuel. A plain board shed would have done for that half, but it is wrapped in the same wall as the tool store, giving the street one consistent storehouse front.

A Working Side Facing the Yard

On the west side of the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed, facing into the estate, are the doorways, with a lean-to roof (Geya) running along them. A closed storehouse wall faces the street; a sheltered working edge, for moving tools and firewood in and out, faces the yard.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs says the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed, together with the miso storehouse and the new storehouse, contributes to the historic landscape of the village, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on that basis.

A store for tools and household goods and a shed for fuel are humble buildings. Here, on the street side, they are given the same standing as the front gate and the miso storehouse.

Seeing the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed

The Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed faces the street on the east side of the estate, and its namako-walled street front can be seen from the road. The interior is not open (checked October 2026).

The lean-to on the west side faces into the estate and cannot be seen from outside. Please photograph the Yabuki Family Residence Tool Storehouse and Woodshed only from the public road and do not peer through the small gate beside the miso storehouse. Directions are on the Yabuki Family Residence page.