Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse

About the Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse

The Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse (三宅家住宅古米蔵, Miyake-ke Jūtaku Furukomegura) is a late Edo-period earthen-walled rice store, dated to between 1751 and 1830, in Inarimachi, Kaita Town, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, and was entered on the register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on May 2, 2017. It is a Dozo-zukuri building with a tiled roof and a building area of 43 square meters.

The Old Rice Storehouse stands in the middle of the Miyake plot on the west side, just south of the new storehouse. Its front faces east onto the passage, opposite the late Meiji new rice storehouse.

It measures 5 Ken by 3. Its white walls are punctuated by neatly spaced windows.

Why It Was Registered

The Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to its white walls and windows as a defining part of the view within the estate.

The same description calls it the largest storehouse on the site. Its registered building area, however, is 43 square meters, smaller than the 63 of the clothing storehouse. Both have the same bay counts, 5 by 3, and the clothing storehouse has an eave along its full front. The Agency does not say what measure it used, so both statements are given here as they stand.

The name furukomegura, "old rice store," presumably distinguishes it from the new rice storehouse built in the late Meiji era. Old and new rice stores facing each other across the passage show the family's rice storage growing from the Edo period into Meiji. The Agency notes that the newer store held rice paid in by tenant farmers, and this older one was part of the same landholding household.

What to Look For

A central door flanked by windows

On the ground floor of the Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse, the door sits in the middle of the front with a window on each side. The upper floor has four windows in a row. The result is a calm, nearly symmetrical elevation.

Board hoods over the openings

Each ground-floor opening has its own small hood made of boards, keeping rain off the door and windows in the earthen wall. The clothing storehouse, of the same period, shelters its whole front under one continuous eave; the Old Rice Storehouse puts a separate hood over each opening instead.

A broad expanse of white wall

What the Agency singles out for the landscape is the white wall pierced by windows. Without a full-length eave, the Old Rice Storehouse presents a tall white face to the passage. For anyone walking through the estate, it was probably the most prominent wall in the middle of the plot.

Visiting

The Miyake Family Residence Old Rice Storehouse stands inside the grounds of a private house, and neither the grounds nor the building are open (checked September 27, 2026).

It sits on the west side of the internal passage behind the main house, with its windowed front facing east into the plot. Expect not to see that front from the old Saigoku Kaidō, and please do not look into the grounds.