Miyake Family Residence New Storehouse

About the Miyake Family Residence New Storehouse

The Miyake Family Residence New Storehouse (三宅家住宅新蔵, Miyake-ke Jūtaku Shingura) is a late Meiji-era earthen-walled storehouse, built between 1898 and 1912, 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 pantiled roof (Sangawara-buki) and, at 21 square meters, the smallest of the six registered buildings.

The New Storehouse stands halfway down the long, narrow Miyake plot, toward the west side. Its front faces east onto the passage through the estate, directly opposite the late Edo clothing storehouse.

It measures 3 Ken by 2. The door is set slightly north of the center of the front.

Why It Was Registered

The Miyake Family Residence New Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the most carefully built of the storehouses on the site.

Two of the four storehouses, this one and the new rice storehouse, date from the late Meiji era; the other two go back to the late Edo period. The name shingura, "new store," simply marks it as a later addition to the ones already standing.

For so small a building, the Miyake New Storehouse was given unusually elaborate windows. It suggests that, besides the large rice stores, the family in the late Meiji era wanted a compact and secure store. What it held is not recorded in any official source.

What to Look For

Windows on one face only

On both floors, the windows of the Miyake Family Residence New Storehouse open only on the front. The sides and back have none, so the three faces turned away from the passage are solid wall.

Iron bars and plastered shutters

Each window is half a ken wide. Iron bars are fixed on the outside, and behind them hangs a shutter that opens inward, its boards thickly coated in earthen plaster. Closed, a plastered shutter seals the opening almost as well as the wall itself. The bars keep out intruders, and the shutters keep out fire.

This is most likely what the Agency means by careful workmanship. Even on a small store, the builders took the trouble to protect the windows against both theft and fire.

Set against the clothing storehouse

The clothing storehouse opposite is 5 ken long, covers 63 square meters and has an eave along its whole front. The New Storehouse, at 21 square meters, is about a third of its size. A large, open Edo store and a small, tight Meiji one face each other across the passage.

Visiting

The Miyake Family Residence New 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.