Former Kitaokada Family Residence Tool Storehouse

What Is the Former Kitaokada Family Residence Tool Storehouse?

The Former Kitaokada Family Residence Tool Storehouse (旧北岡田家住宅道具蔵, Kyū Kitaokada-ke Jūtaku Dōgugura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri earthen-walled storehouse built in 1905 in Aiba, Ono Town, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, and was registered together with its covered corridor as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on November 2, 2018. Extended in 1934, it has a building area of 137 square meters, making it the larger of the estate's two storehouses.

It stands in the northwest corner of the grounds, diagonally opposite the Rice Storehouse in the southeast corner.

Two Storehouses Under One Roof

From outside, the Kitaokada Tool Storehouse reads as one long building running east to west. The Agency for Cultural Affairs explains that it is really two storehouses, an east store and a west store, covered by a single continuous gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pan tiles. A lean-to eave runs the full length of the south side.

The difference lies in the roof framing. The east store uses Wagoya, the standard Japanese method in which short posts stand on tie beams and carry the purlins. The west store uses Nobori-bari, sloping beams laid along the pitch of the roof. Two framing systems thus sit side by side beneath one ridge. Inside, the walls on both floors are lined with boards.

The database does not say which of the two stores dates from 1905 and which from the 1934 extension.

The North Wall Seen from the Lane

The Former Kitaokada Family Residence Tool Storehouse holds registration number 21-0267 for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency points to two things: the sheer length of the building on its high stone base, and the orderly row of windows, each with a small protective hood, along the north wall. Together, it says, they give the village street its character.

That north wall is the back of the estate, on the side opposite the south-facing Main House. Yet for anyone walking the lane outside, it is this long, windowed wall that sets the tone of the Kitaokada compound.

Seeing the Kitaokada Tool Storehouse

The north wall of the Former Kitaokada Family Residence Tool Storehouse can be seen from the lane on the north side of the property on any day. For a straight-on view of the window row, stand on that lane. It is narrow, so go on foot.

The south eave and the covered corridor are inside the grounds and come into view on Ono Town's opening days as you follow the garden, which the town says continues around the north of the Annex as far as the corridor. The town's notice does not mention access to the storehouse interior.