Katayama Family Residence North Storehouse

The Tool Store in the North-West Corner

The Katayama Family Residence North Storehouse (片山家住宅北の蔵, Katayama-ke Jūtaku Kita no Kura) is a 2-storey plastered storehouse of around 1885 in Nitta Tameikecho, Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004.

It stands in the north-west corner of the homestead of the Katayamas, the old headman family of Tameike village, and was built to hold tools. Of dozo-zukuri construction, thick earthen walls finished in plaster, with a tiled roof, it covers 41 square metres. It went up about a dozen years after the main house and gatehouse, at the same time as the south storehouse just to its south.

Together with its neighbour, the Kita no Kura closes off the back of the property and frames the garden behind the main house.

Why It Was Registered

The north storehouse received registration number 10-0114 in the 40th round of national registrations, dated 2004/2/17, for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

In its note on the south storehouse, the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the two stores as the elements that shape the back garden of the main house. Anchoring the north-west corner, the Katayama Family Residence North Storehouse gives the rear of the homestead a settled, enclosed look. It is also a well-made storehouse in its own right, with plastered hinged doors and a separately framed roof.

What to Look For

A long two-storey store

The store sits at the north-west corner of the plot with its ridge running east to west. It measures 4 ken by 2 and a half ken and is hirairi, entered on its long south side, over 2 storeys.

A roof that sits apart

The roof is a kirizuma-zukuri gable covered with sangawara-buki pan tiles and built as an okiyane: a roof framed separately and set on top of the sealed earthen body, leaving an air gap between the two. If fire took the roof, the thick walls below stood a better chance of protecting what was inside.

A sheltered forecourt and plastered doors

Across the eastern half of the south face runs a tsuchibisashi, an eave 2 ken wide over an earth-floored strip, which forms a covered forecourt where tools could be moved in and out in the dry. The doorway and windows are fitted with kannon-biraki double doors thickly coated in shikkui lime plaster; swung shut, they sealed the interior against fire.

A note on the figures

Ota City gives the size of the north storehouse as about 11 tsubo (36.3 square metres), which differs from the Agency's building area of 41 square metres. The gap probably comes from what each measurement includes, such as whether the covered forecourt is counted.

Visiting

The Katayama Family Residence North Storehouse is part of a private home and is not open; as of October 2026 we found no announcement of open days. Standing in the north-west corner of the plot, its outer faces may be visible from outside the property, though we have not confirmed this on site. Please stay off the grounds and respect the residents' privacy.

Photographs in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database show the exterior.