Nando

What a nando is

A nando is a room for storing clothes and household goods. Kept dim with small windows, it sits behind the Zashiki, and it often served as a bedroom as well.

Records place it. The Takigawa Residence in Aichi Prefecture, built in 1814, is centred on two adjoining reception rooms with the store room behind them and a kitchen and a Doma with a large hearth to the east: rooms in front, storage behind.

The Okawa Residence main storehouse in Tochigi Prefecture, built in 1851, is described as standing west of the store room in the north-west corner of the main house, reached through a two-storey ante-space. Storage runs on from the room into the storehouse.

The Kofutei at Chikushi Jogakuen in Fukuoka Prefecture attaches one to its reception suite along with a three-mat Chashitsu and an entrance, under a veranda and Geya. Guest buildings have them too.

A block of its own

The Sato Residence in Akita Prefecture, built in 1900, is recorded as an Important Cultural Property whose Insū entry lists counting-house, kitchen, store-room and reception blocks. Here storage occupies a whole building, counted alongside the others.

Because the room is out of sight from the front, records tend to mention it briefly. Its position in the plan nonetheless says how the house was used, through its relation to the reception rooms and the earthen floor.

Where a house can be entered, look behind the reception rooms. Small windows and surviving fittings for storage identify it.