Yabashi Family Residence East Storehouse

The Smallest of the 3 Storehouses

The Yabashi Family Residence East Storehouse (矢橋家住宅東蔵, Yabashi-ke Jūtaku Higashigura) is a fireproof storehouse of the Tenpō era (1830 to 1844) on the Yabashi estate beside the old Nakasendō highway in Akasaka, Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1997.

The estate has 3 storehouses, known as kura, and this is the smallest. The Agency for Cultural Affairs believes it was built at the same time as the Main House. The 3 storehouses share a timber, 2-storey, tile-roofed form but differ in size: the East Storehouse covers 29 square metres, the Middle Storehouse 52 square metres and the West Storehouse 61 square metres.

Since the Main House dates from 1833, the East Storehouse was most likely one of the kura added to hold the household's goods and stock when the family built its new home.

Clapboards Over Plaster

The Yabashi Family Residence East Storehouse was registered as a model of its type, and the Agency describes 3 features:

• a doorway on the west side, sheltered by an open pent roof on posts that forms a covered work area in front of the door, called a kuramae
• outer walls clad in sasarako-style clapboard siding
• boarding carried right up to the verge at the gable ends

In sasarako cladding, horizontal boards are lapped over one another and held by vertical battens notched to fit each overlap. The boards protect the thick lime plaster walls of the kura from wind and rain, and instead of a white plastered box you see a building striped in dark timber. Boarding the gable verges as well gives extra protection to the most exposed edges.

The Agency sees this exterior as expressing the character of the estate. Small as it is, the East Storehouse follows the same finishing approach as the other 2, and the 3 together make up the back of the Yabashi property.

Where the East Storehouse Stands

The Yabashi Family Residence East Storehouse stands at the rear of the estate, behind the Main House. The Main House and the boundary walls block the view, so it is difficult to see from the old Nakasendō.

The covered doorway and notched-batten cladding the Agency describes are details seen from inside the grounds. The thing to take away is that this modest kura belongs to the estate's oldest layer, built alongside the Main House in the Tenpō era.

Visiting

The East Storehouse is not open to the public, and neither its interior nor its exterior can be viewed.

Please do not look through the gate or enter the grounds. There is no admission charge or booking system.